Russia launches supply ship to space

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MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Xinhua): Russian supply ship Progress M-61 was blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan's steppes to the international Space Station (ISS) Thursday, the Mission Control outside Moscow said.
The Soyuz-2 carrier rocket with the supply ship was launched at 21:33 Moscow time (1733 GMT). The spaceship reached the orbit nine minutes later. It will deliver to the ISS 2,500 kg of cargoes, including water, fuel and computers for the space station's Russian segment, as well as parcels from families of the spacemen.
The spaceship will dock with the ISS on Aug. 5.
A poster with the portrait of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian space exploration pioneer, is on the cone of the carrier rocket Soyuz-2. It is dedicated to the 150th jubilee of the scientist that will be marked in September.