A Progress cargo vessel will take off for the International Space Station (ISS) on December 23, carrying Christmas presents as well as fuel, oxygen, water and food, Russian space officials said Tuesday.
The spaceship will take off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan transporting 2.5 tonnes of supplies, a spokesman for the TsUP mission control near Moscow, Valery Lyndin, told AFP.
"There will certainly be presents for Christmas and New Year on board the vessel," he said.
It will be the last flight by a Progress supply rocket this year.
US astronaut Leroy Chiao and Russian cosmonaut Salijan Charipov have been on the ISS since October 16 on a six-month mission. They will celebrate Christmas and the New Year in space.
Russian spacecraft have been the only means of getting to the space station and back since the United States grounded its shuttle fleet following the loss of the Columbia, which burned up on re-entry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
