Russian cargo ship docks successfully with space station

The Russian unmanned cargo ship Progress successfully docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, resupplying the crew with food and fuel, Russia's mission control centre said.

The docking procedure "took place at the scheduled time," the Russian TASS news agency quoted mission control as saying.

The Progress-63 brought with it around three tonnes of food, fuel and supplies to Russian cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko, Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin, NASA's Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams and British astronaut Tim Peake.

It was the second successful docking for a Progress cargo ships, from Russia's Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan, since one of the craft failed in April 2015 and was lost as it burnt up upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

Russia is currently solely responsible for manned flights to the International Space Station, but resupply missions are also carried out by the United States.

A previous cargo vessel was disconnected from the station on Wednesday and will slowly descend to Earth before plunging into the Pacific Ocean on April 8.

On March 26, the Cygnus cargo ship packed with science and research equipment plus food, water and clothes successfully docked at the International Space Station after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.