Progress 26 lifts off from Kazakhstan

HOUSTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A Progress 26 rocket lifted off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a supply mission to the International Space Station.

The spaceship -- loaded with 5,111 pounds of food, fuel, air, water and other supplies -- is scheduled to dock with the orbiting laboratory Sunday.

Aboard the space station Thursday, Cmdr. Fyodor Yurchikhin and cosmonaut Olog Kotov reconfigured an automated rendezvous system in preparation for the P26 docking.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said Astronaut Clay Anderson conducted routine periodic inspections of the station's smoke detectors Thursday and Kotov did routine air sampling.

Progress 24 undocked from the station Wednesday loaded with trash and unwanted equipment. It was incinerated when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.