MOSCOW — A Russian booster rocket today successfully launched an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station, whose crew is anxiously awaiting it after the successive failures of two previous supply missions.

A Soyuz-U rocket blasted off flawlessly from Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan, placing the Progress M-28M ship into a designated orbit, safely en route to the station. On Sunday, it’s set to dock at the station currently manned by Russians Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and NASA’s Scott Kelly.

The ship is carrying 2.4 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food and other supplies for the crew, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The previous Progress launch in April ended in failure, and on Sunday a U.S. supply mission failed when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart.