Russia Launches Space Freighter

Moscow:Russia Sunday launched a spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), the Roscosmos space agency said.

The Soyuz-U carrier rocket with Progress M-13M spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Space Centre at 11:11 GMT.

Progress will deliver food and a small satellite Chibis-M, to study lightnings and thunderstorms in the Earth's atmosphere, Roscosmos said.The ISS crew currently comprises NASA astronaut Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. They are expected to return to the Earth aboard a Soyuz carrier rocket Nov 22.