Urgent Russian Supply Mission To Space Station Launched

STATION NEWS

File image of a Progress class Soyuz. Desktops available. 1024, 1280, 800.

Moscow (AFP) Dec 24, 2004
The Russian cargo vessel Progress M-51 carrying urgently needed water, oxygen and food to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off successfully overnight Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported, quoting Russian space authorities.

A Soyuz rocket took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bearing the cargo vessel at 2219 GMT, and placed it into orbit nine minutes later, Interfax said.

Progress, carrying more than two tonnes of water, oxygen, food, fuel and scientific materials -- as well as Christmas presents for the two-man ISS crew -- is expected to arrive at the space station on Sunday.

If the Progress flight had been annulled or aborted, Russian Salijan Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao would have required emergency evacuation, because they currently have enough supplies to last only until mid-January.

The space station, which had been supplied by US space shuttles until the February 2003 Columbia disaster, is now supplied only by Russian craft, which have a much smaller cargo capacity.

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STATION NEWS

Expedition 10 Faces Half Rations As Resupply Mission Countdown

Moscow (UPI) Dec 20, 2004
International Space Station mission controllers have cut the astronauts' food ration in half, Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov told a local newspaper.

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