The spacecraft was launched "as planned" at a little after midnight local time (2023 GMT) and is due to arrive at the ISS on Saturday, said a spokesman.

Progress is delivering a three-tonne cargo of combustible energy materials, water, oxygen, food and medicine for the three-man ISS crew after a problem with static discharge was identified as coming from solar panels used to run the computers which control oxygen and water supplies on the ISS.

The vessel is also taking a batch of snails for experiments looking at tissue regeneration in space.

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