Russia sends supplies to space station

MOSCOW – An unmanned Russian cargo spaceship streaked toward the international space station Friday after blasting off with badly needed food for the two-member U.S.-Russian crew, who have been forced to ration their dwindling supplies.

The Progress M-51 lifted off from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in the steppes of Kazakhstan and entered orbit 124 miles above Earth within nine minutes, Russia’s Federal Space Agency said.

The spaceship was scheduled to reach the station Sunday morning with about 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel and research equipment for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao, who are in their second month on the station.

Russian and American space officials were alarmed earlier this month to learn that the two had gone through so much food on the station.

NASA officials said there was enough food to last seven to 14 days after Dec. 25 if the shipment did not arrive, and called the situation “critical.”

The crew has already been ordered to cut back on meals because food is running short. A Russian Space Agency spokesman has said the two could be forced to return to Earth if the Progress does not reach the station.

“The crew isn’t hungry or thirsty,” Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said. “We are running short of food due to the break in shuttle flights, but it would be absolutely wrong to dramatize the situation and say they have nothing to eat.”

Russian Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships have been the only link to the space station since the U.S. shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia burned up as it returned to Earth in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

The Progress is also carrying Christmas presents for the crew from their families and friends, as well as scientific equipment, including a German-made robotic device.

An independent team was looking into how the orbiting station’s food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly and how it can be improved.

Sharipov and Chiao’s launch to the station in October was delayed twice – once after the accidental detonation of an explosive bolt used to separate the ship’s various components, and then when a tank with hydrogen peroxide burst due to a sudden change in pressure.