Space station ship finally docks

The ISS relies on both Russian spacecraft and US shuttles

An unmanned Russian cargo spacecraft has finally linked up with the International Space Station after several hours of docking problems.

Mission controllers said the problem was caused by an antenna on the cargo vehicle, which failed to fold away.

The Progress craft was taking water, food and other supplies to the crew, who are said to be in no danger.

A Russian mission control spokesman said that such problems had occurred before.

A Progress rocket sent up last year had to be docked manually by a crewman after communications failed a few minutes before docking.

"There was some problem with achieving a perfect seal," the spokesman said. "We have had such incidents before and it is not something extraordinary."

The supply ship was launched from Russia's Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Monday.

The current ISS crew - Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Michael Lopez-Alegria and German Thomas Reiter - have been on board the space station since September.