Russian cargo ship docks with international space station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked with the international space station on Tuesday, delivering 2.5 tons of supplies and equipment for the orbital outpost as well as gifts for its Russian-American crew.

Photo: Russian cargo ship docks with international space station

The Progress M-60 moored with the station on schedule at 9:10 a.m. Moscow time (0510 GMT), said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for Russian Mission Control outside Moscow. The cargo craft was launched atop a Soyuz-U booster rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The ship brought oxygen, water, food and scientific equipment, including snails intended for biological experiments. It also carried books, movies, gifts and other personal items for the crew - Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams.

Yurchikhin and Kotov began a six-month stint on the station in April, arriving along with American software billionaire and space tourist Charles Simonyi. The U.S. space shuttle Discovery delivered Williams to the station in December.