Dispatching a freighter filled with food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station, an unmanned Russian Soyuz booster successfully launched Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Main engine ignition. Credit: NASA TV The booster blasted off carrying the automated Progress vessel from the launch base in Kazakhstan at 8:50:24 a.m. EDT (1250:24 GMT), beginning Russia's second of five cargo delivery missions to the space station in 2012. The preliminary orbit was achieved after a nine-minute ascent provided by the three-stage rocket, and onboard commands were issued to unfurl the craft's communications and navigation antennas and extend two power-generating solar arrays that span 35...
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