The Russian cargo ship Progress M-14M was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Thursday, bringing water and fuel to the International Space Station, the mission control centre said.

Progress was successfully launched at 05:06 Thursday (2306 GMT Wednesday) carrying some 2.6 tonnes of mainly water and fuel, Russian news agencies cited the Russian control centre as saying.

It is due to dock with the ISS on Saturday at 0009 GMT.

There are currently six men aboard the orbiting space station; three Russians, two Americans and a Dutchman.

The Russian space industry suffered a bad year in 2011, with five failed launches.

Last August a Soyuz rocket and the Progress supply ship it was carrying crashed minutes after blast off from Baikonour, due to a motor failure, paralysing such launched towards the ISS for three months.

In October investigators said "negligence" was to blame.

Earlier this month a much-vaunted Mars probe launched in November crashed into the Pacific Ocean.