MOSCOW — Russia launched a supply craft to the International Space Station on Friday after the recent failure of two launches.
The unmanned Progress craft, which is to dock with the station on Sunday, is carrying fuel, oxygen, food, water and other supplies, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.
The cargo has been anxiously awaited after two previous launches of supply ships to the space station — in April by the Russians and just days ago by the Americans — failed.
Earlier this week, a U.S.-designed Falcon rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., exploded soon after launch, apparently because an oxygen tank burst, said SpaceX, the rocket’s manufacturer.
April’s launch, from Kazakhstan, was marred by a series of failures in communications and with the Russian-made Soyuz booster rocket that caused the craft to spiral out of reach of the space station.
Friday’s launch, also from Kazakhstan, appeared to have been problem-free.
A Japanese cargo craft is due to launch next month to bring further supplies to the space station.
NASA has said the space station’s crew — Russians Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and American Scott Kelly — was not in danger of running out of supplies because the station had reserves to last at least until October.
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