MOSCOW (AP) - An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, equipment and gifts blasted off Saturday en route to the international space station, officials said.

The Progress M-60 mounted atop a Soyuz-U booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 7:25 a.m. from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and entered the designated preliminary orbit, Russia's Federal Space Agency said in a statement.

Following a series of maneuvers to adjust its orbit to that of the station, the ship is scheduled to moor at the orbiting outpost Tuesday.

It will deliver oxygen, water food and scientific equipment to the station's current crew - Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams.

Along with other cargo, the spaceship is also carrying books, movies, gifts and other personal items for the crew. It is also delivering snails intended for biological experiments.