Russia's Progress M-16M cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station, Mission Control Center said Thursday.
The unmanned spacecraft reached the ISS at 5:18 Moscow time in an automatic mode (0118 GMT), the center said.
The Progress M-16M was launched at 11:35 p.m. Moscow time Wednesday night (1935 GMT) by the Soyuz carrier rocket. It reached the ISS at only the fourth circuit around the earth in less than six hours after blast-off. Normally it takes two or three days to reach the targeted orbit.
Russia looks forward to use the acceleration mode for the upcoming delivery of cosmonauts to the ISS, for relieving them of a several-day confinement in the Soyuz spaceship.
The Progress M-16M delivered some 2,600 tons of supplies, including scientific equipment, medicine, food and water for the ISS crew comprising Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Yury Malenchenko, NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba and Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
This was the third launch of the cargo craft in 2012.
A Progress M-15M freighter undocked from the ISS Tuesday morning. It is now on a three-week autonomous flight to conduct a series of experiments before being sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
Progress freighters have been the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet for decades. Russia lost a Progress cargo ship in 2011 for the first time in 30 years.
