The Russians also are preparing to launch a Progress supply ship to the space station on Tuesday.

CNN: Spacewalkers hang experiments on Alpha

When he first returned to England in 1967, he spent six months working for a pirate radio station on a ship in the North Sea.

ECONOMIST: Obituary: John Peel | The

An Ariane 5 rocket has been booked to launch Europe's third ATV cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on 9 March and this mission takes precedence over all other activity at Kourou.

BBC: Vega rocket set for maiden voyage

Russia promised to take Tito to the ISS after it failed to ship him to its ageing Mir space station, dumped earlier this year.

CNN: Russia 'plans more space tourism'

Like most trips of this nature, once the supplies are loaded, the crew of the station will then load the ship with trash and send it back to Kazakhstan.

FORBES: Progress 46 Successfully Docks With International Space Station

The ship was carrying food, supplies, fuel and other equipment for the space station.

FORBES: Progress 46 Successfully Docks With International Space Station

It has a research station in the Svalbard archipelago, the northernmost part of Norway, and is building a sister ship to the Xue Long, to go into service in 2014.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

The cargo ship was expected to automatically park itself at the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the space station the following day, but the attempt failed and the maneuver was aborted.

MSN: Unmanned Russian cargo ship says goodbye to space station