Russia's cargo spaceship docks with space station

MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Progress M-03M, Russia's third modified cargo craft, docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday morning, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow announced.

International Space Station is seen from space shuttle Discovery on March 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)

The docking was completed in automatic mode at 05:41 a.m. local time (0141 GMT), a control center official said, adding that astronauts would check the tightness and pressure in the docking module before unloading supplies from the cargo craft.

The spacecraft, launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan early Thursday morning, delivers some 2.5 tons of supplies, including food, water, fuel, equipment, and parcels from families, for the crew members on board the ISS.

Besides, psychologists prepared fresh auto magazines and a CD with photos of the recent MAKS 2009 air show for the crew.

The Progress M-03M is Russia's third modified cargo craft. Compared with previous cargo spacecraft, the new generation of Progress vehicles are lighter in weight and equipped with a modern digital control system, which enables it to dock with the ISS more accurately.

Two manned Russian spaceships, the Soyuz TMA-15 and the Soyuz TMA-116, had already docked with the ISS.