Russian cargo ship departs for space station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying nearly three tonnes of supplies, equipment and gifts blasted off Monday on a trip to the International Space Station, a Russian official said.

The Progress M-58 mounted atop a Soyuz-U booster rocket lifted offMondayfrom the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and entered orbit about 10 minutes later, saidValery Lyndin, a spokesman for the Federal Space Agency.

The ship was scheduled to reach the orbiting station Thursday evening, delivering fresh fruit and vegetables, compact discs, DVDs and other gifts to the station's crew cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and German astronaut Thomas Reiter.

Also included in the shipment, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency, was equipment for repairing a Russian-built Elektron oxygen generator.

The generatoroverheated in September, spreading a burnt-rubber smell and leaking potassium hydroxide.

While the incident forced the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the eight-year-old orbiting outpost, Russian and U.S. space officials said crew members' lives were never in any danger.