Cargo shipment en route to space station

An unmanned Russian supply ship is on its way to the International Space Station after blasting off early this morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Associated Press reports.

The Progress M-66 cargo spacecraft launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket at 12:49 a.m. EST and is scheduled to dock with the station at 2:19 a.m. EST Friday.

The spaceship is carrying nearly 2.5 tons of equipment and life support supplies, including:
- more than 2,860 pounds of dry cargo
- more than 1,910 pounds of propellant
- more than 100 pounds of oxygen and air

Another Progress vehicle, called Progress 31, left the station Feb. 5 carrying trash and waste. It burned up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

The new arrival, Progress 32, will also be filled with trash after the Expedition 18 crew - American astronauts Mike Fincke and Sandy Magnus and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov - unpack the fresh supplies.

The crew hopes the docking Friday goes more smoothly than the docking of Progress 31 on Nov. 30, 2008.

Lonchakov had to manually guide the spacecraft into docking position after its Ukranian-built Kurs automated docking system failed about 20 meters from the station.

You can read more about Progress resupply ships here.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the images. Top, a Russian-made Progress M-66 cargo spacecraft lifts off from the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today, bound for the International Space Station. (AP Photo) Below, Expedition 18 flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, seated at the controls of the TORU manual docking system, and Commander Mike Fincke give a thumbs up after the successful docking of the ISS Progress 31 cargo craft in November 2008. Photo Credit: NASA TV