Russian supply ship lifts off to International Space Station

Moscow, Dec 6 (AP) An automatic Russian supply ship carrying tons of supplies successfully blasted off Friday heading for the International Space Station. The Progress MS-13 cargo ship lifted off as scheduled at 2:34 pm (0934 GMT) atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russian space complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

It successfully entered a designated preliminary orbit and is set to dock with the space outpost on Monday. The Progress is carrying about 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of food, fuel and supplies to the space station, which currently has six astronauts aboard — NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch; Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency; and Russia's Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka. (AP) RUP