The Soyuz-U booster rocket blasted off from the Russian-leased launch pad at Baikonur in Kazakhstan early on Friday, pushing the Progress-M28M supply ship into its planned orbit. The ship is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS), which is currently manned by Russian astronauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko of Russia, along with the American, Scott Kelly.

The ship is carrying 2.4 metric tons of oxygen, water, food, fuel and other supplies for the crew, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The successful launch comes after two previous failures, including the most recent one, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blew up shortly after lifting off from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida on Sunday. Back in April, a previous Progress launch also ended in failure.

According to the US space agency NASA, despite the previous failed attempts to resupply the ISS there was never any risk to the three-man crew, as the space station routinely carries large quantities of supplies.

With the failure of the SpaceX rocket, the ISS remained wholly dependent upon the Russian space station for its supplies, as it has been since the demise of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

pfd/kms (AP, dpa)