Fresh supplies for space station

Supplies for the three-man crew

A cargo craft has successfully docked with the International Space Station after some initial technical hitches.

The Progress M-1 vehicle had initially failed to dock automatically with the space platform, forcing the station crew to switch to manual control.

Poor visibility further delayed the docking, but officials at Russia's mission control centre in Moscow said the US-Russian crew on the ISS had "handled the situation well".

The cargo craft blasted off from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Space station will be a unique research laboratory

It was carrying two and a half tonnes of supplies needed to sustain in orbit US astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko.

The delivery including food, water, technical equipment and fuel.

The joint Russian and American crew left for the ISS on 31 October and will remain on board the space platform for 117 days.

They are referred to as Expedition 1 and will be replaced by Expedition 2 in February.

When complete in 2006, the multi-billion-dollar space station will be the largest manmade structure in space, measuring more than 100 metres in length and weighing 450 tonnes. It will be clearly visible from the surface of the Earth.