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The Soyuz-U booster rocket was launched late Wednesday evening (local time), January 25, 2012, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (launch complex: LC-1/5) in Kazakhstan.
It was launched at 23:06:40 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Wednesday, which relates to 6:06:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday (at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida) and 5:06:40 a.m. Wednesday local time (at Kazakhstan).
Its payload was the Progress M-14M cargo ship loaded with the goods and supplies for the crew of the International Space Station, which is orbiting above the Earth at an altitude of about 225 miles (360 kilometers).
Approximately 529 seconds (8.8 minutes) after launch, the Progress spacecraft separated from the Soyuz rocket, with a scheduled target orbit of 120 miles (193 kilometers) perigee and 171 miles (274 kilometers) apogee, along with 51.66 degrees of inclination.
The spacecraft will steadily increase its altitude over the next two days, in its journey to catch up to the International Space Station.
The Progress ship (with ISS flight number: ISS-46P) is scheduled to dock at the space station at around 0008 GMT (5:08 EST), on Saturday, January 28, 2012. It will dock at the Pirs module of the space station.
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