* Astronomy

The Progress M-55 launch vehicle will be sunk in the Pacific Ocean on Monday evening after being undocked from the International Space Station earlier in the day.

The Progress M-55, which has been loaded with rubbish from the International Space Station, will be undocked Monday at 15:06 GMT. The parts of the vehicle that do not completely burn up in the Earth's atmosphere will crash into the Pacific Ocean at 17:.53 GMT in the "spaceship cemetery" not far from Christmas Island where the Mir station was sunk in 2000.

The Russian Federal Space Agency said that a Progress M-57 spaceship would be launched on a Soyuz-U rocket on June 24. When it docks with the ISS two days later, it will deliver fuel, consumables, scientific and research equipment and water for Russian and American astronauts Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams.
The agency said the ship would be launched from the Baikonur space centre, which Russia leases from the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.
Vinogradov and Williams, the 13th ISS expedition, began their mission on board the orbital station on April 1.

Progress 20 is currently scheduled to automatically dock to the station’s Pirs Docking Compartment of the ISS at 19:54 GMT (2:54 p.m. EST ) on December 23.
The Progress docked to the station's Zvezda Service Module's aft port will remain there until early March. The crew will stow trash in the Progress and use its oxygen supply to replenish station cabin atmosphere.


NASA TV will broadcast the cargo ship’s ISS arrival beginning at 19:00 GMT.

The unpiloted Progress M-55 spacecraft was successfully launched atop of a three-stage Soyuz-U booster at 18:38 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The supply ship is bound for the International Space Station to deliver fresh food, clothes, equipment and special holiday gifts just in time for Christmas.
A series of automated engine firings over the next two days will guide the Progress to the station's Zvezda service module's aft port for docking at 19:54 GMT, 23 December 2005.
The new station-bound Progress is loaded with 5,683 pounds of supplies. The "dry" cargo amounts to 3,097 pounds in the form of spare parts, repair gear, life support and equipment hardware.
The refuelling module carries 1,940 pounds of propellant for transfer into the Russian segment of the station to feed the outpost's manoeuvring thrusters.
To replenish the station's oxygen supply, the Progress is bringing 183 pounds of oxygen and air. And the vessel has 463 pounds of water.