MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has launched the Progress M-03M cargo spaceship to the International Space Station from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a Mission Control official said Thursday.
"The launch took place without trouble. The freighter is to dock with the ISS in an automatic mode at 05:41 Moscow time [01:41 GMT] Sunday," the official said.
The space freighter, the third of Russia's new generation of digitally controlled Progress craft, will deliver over 2.5 metric tons of cargo to the six-person ISS crew, including food and water supplies, fuel and scientific equipment.
Progress-series freighters have been the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet for decades. In addition to their main mission as cargo spacecraft, they are used to adjust the ISS orbit and conduct scientific experiments.
Russia "buried" its last analog space freighter, the Progress M-67, in the southern Pacific on September 27.
The two previous digital Progress freighters, M-01M and M-02M, successfully carried out their supply missions to the ISS.
