MOSCOW, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia launched a Progress M-MIM2 cargo ship from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said.
The MIM2 scientific module, the fourth module that Russia has launched, will be used in experiments on the International Space Station (ISS).
Local TV showed that a Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the spaceship atop blasted off at 05:22 p.m. Moscow time (1422 GMT) from the Baikonur launch pad, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan.
The spacecraft separated from the booster rocket about nine minutes after the launch and began an autonomous flight, according to the Mission Control.
The freighter, which is also to deliver some 850 kg of food, water, oxygen and equipment for the crew members on board the ISS, is expected to dock with the ISS in two days.
The MIM2 module is the first of three components Russia is planning to add to the space station in the next three years.
It will be used in 10 new experiments at the Zvezda module and the Pirs docking station on the Russian segment of the ISS.
Russia's space company Energia is currently carrying out checks of a MIM1 module, which will be delivered to Cape Canaveral in Florida in December and be launched to the ISS in May.