Russia is preparing to launch a Progress...

The Progress M-04M freighter will lift off on a Soyuz-U carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 03:45 GMT and is expected to dock with the ISS on February 5.

The rocket has been delivered to a launch pad at the space center, the agency said.

The digitally controlled Progress craft will deliver food and water supplies, fuel and scientific equipment to the orbital station, which is manned by an international crew comprising 6 astronauts from Russia, the United States and Japan.

Progress-series freighters have been the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet for decades. In addition to their main mission as cargo spacecraft, they are used to adjust the ISS orbit and conduct scientific experiments.

Russia "buried" its last analog space freighter, the Progress M-67, in the southern Pacific last September.

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)