Russian Soyuz brings cargo spacecraft into orbit (VIDEO)

A Russian Soyuz-2.1a has brought the ‘Progress MS-28’ cargo ship, carrying supplies to the International Space Station, into orbit. The carrier rocket blasted off early on Thursday from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

This was the third launch of a ‘Progress MS’ spacecraft since the start of the year.

The flight to the ISS is expected to take two days, and will bring 2.6 tons of crucial items to the cosmonauts and astronauts manning the station. Among the supplies are fuel, drinking water and food. According to TASS, the rations include oranges, grapefruit, onions and coffee.

In addition, the Progress cargo spacecraft will deliver equipment required for a number of medical experiments.

Back in March, the launch of a Soyuz-2.1a from Baikonur was aborted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before its scheduled lift-off. The crew emerged unscathed from the incident.

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, Yuri Borisov, told reporters that the abrupt flight cancellation was caused by a voltage drop in the chemical power source.