The Progress M1-11, launched on Thursday from the Baikonur cosmodrome that Russia rents from its central Asian neighbour Kazakhstan, is delivering 2.5 tonnes of food, water and fuel.

It is also carrying personal packages for the two-man Russian-US team on the space station and equipment for a Russian-European scientific experiment into the level of radiation absorbed by humans during long-term space flights.

US astronaut Michael Foale and his Russian colleague Alexander Kaleri have been on the international space station since October.

Progress will continue to provide most of the support for the ISS in the foreseeable future because of uncertainty over when US shuttle flights to the space station will resume, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the head of Russian space vessel maker RKK Energuia, Yuri Semenov, as saying.

The head of Russia's space agency Rosaviakosmos told ITAR-TASS a test US shuttle flight -- the first since the breakup on re-entry of the Columbia shuttle on February 1, 2002 -- could take place later this year.

"(It's) planned for September but it will be essentially experimental," Rosaviakosmos head Yuri Koptiev said. "NASA can't yet give a date for the shuttle to start working with the ISS."

Last week US experts said it was too soon to fix a date for the renewal of US shuttle flights to the space station.

SPACE.WIRE