Russian space freighter leaves ISS

A Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress, has undocked from the International Space Station six months after its arrival.

The unmanned Progress delivered two and a half tons of equipment, including oxygen, water and packages from the ISS crew’s families. The freighter also took population census forms for the Russian cosmonauts, so that the country could count them in the statistics.Before leaving, the freighter was loaded up with garbage and used equipment.Progress will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, with the remaining fragments dropping safely into the South Pacific.The next cargo spacecraft headed for the ISS blasted off from a French cosmodrome earlier this week and is to reach the station next week.The ISS is currently manned by its 26th crew, made up of three Russians, two Americans and an Italian. Earlier this week, two Russians performed this year's second space walk – installing equipment for experiments to sense earthquakes, lightning strikes and thunderstorms on Earth.