Unmanned Russian cargo rocket successfully docks with space sta

MOSCOW -- A Russian cargo rocket carrying food, medicine and mail successfully docked with the international space station on Saturday, space officials said.

The unmanned Progress M46 cargo ship made an automatic docking with the space station at 10:23 a.m. local time, a spokesman at Russian Mission Control said.

The cargo ship was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the ex-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan on Wednesday, bringing supplies for the American and two Russians living aboard the space station.

The 2.5 tons of cargo included fuel, oxygen, water, fresh fruit, medicines and packages for U.S. biochemist Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.

The latest cargo shipment comes while NASA has grounded the U.S. space shuttle fleet to try to determine why tiny cracks are developing in the fuel line feeding the main rocket engines. The announcement Monday put a crimp in NASA's efforts to satisfy a tight schedule for building and supplying the international space station.