Russia launched a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, delivering food, water and New Year gifts for ISS crew members.

The carrier rocket with the Progress spacecraft atop blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Central Asia's Kazakhstan at 15:38 Moscow time (1238 GMT), said the mission control center.

The Progress M-01M is the first of the Progress series that was equipped with a modern digital control system, said a mission control spokesman.

It will dock with the ISS in four days and send 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel, clothes and equipment, as well as New Year gifts from relatives to the crew members working in orbit.

Among the clothes there were polo shirts and long pants made of air-permeable fabric with sticky fasteners and small hooks, which designers believe will be more comfortable for the cosmonauts, Itar-Tass cited chief space couturier Alexander Yarov.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)