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Russia Sends Cargo Craft to Space Station
Russia launched a cargo craft carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday in preparation for the first long-term manned mission to the orbital laboratory, still under construction.
A spokesman for Mission Control outside Moscow said that Progress M-1-3 blasted off from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1827 GMT. The craft is due to dock with the space station at around 2000 GMT on Tuesday.
The space station, being built jointly by the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan, has been described as one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever and will cost up to $60 billion.
When complete, supposedly in 2005, it will loom seven stories high and become one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Seven full-time crew members will live and work in a space as big as the cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
Russia sent into orbit the Zvezda living quarters module last month, making possible a four-month mission to the station by two Russians and one American planned to begin on October 30.
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