OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2008. Intensive prelaunch processing of the Soyuz-U rocket and the Progress M-01M cargo vehicle continues at the Baikonur space port.

Expert groups from the Russian space entities assembled the launch vehciel today. First, the upper composite was integrated wiht the third stage of the launcher. Then the upper assembly was integrated with the stack which comprises stages one and two of the rocket.

This evening a meeting of the State Board has to provede the approval for the roll-out. The roll-out is planned for Monday, Nov. 24.

Soyuz-U with Progress M-01M aboard is scheduled for lift-off on Nov. 26, 2008. The Progress is to deliver 2.5 t of propellant, food, water, scientific equipment and consumables to the International Space Station.

Progress M-01M is the first in the so-called "400" series. It is equipped with modern digital systems.