An upgraded Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station early Wednesday, hauling fresh supplies for astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, though an antenna failed to deploy shortly after reaching orbit making it likely the spacecraft will have to be guided in manually by the orbiting lab's crew, NASA officials said.

The unmanned space freighter Progress 31 lifted off atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT) from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will dock at the space station on Sunday a few hours before the planned landing of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, which is currently docked at the station and due to depart Friday.

Nations around the world will join together to mark a milestone in space exploration this week, celebrating the 10th birthday of a unique research laboratory, the International Space Station.

Now the largest spacecraft ever built, the orbital assembly of the space station began with the launch from Kazakhstan of its first bus-sized component, Zarya, on Nov. 20, 1998. The launch began an international construction project of unprecedented complexity and sophistication.

The station is a venture of international cooperation among NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and 11 members of the European Space Agency, or ESA: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More than 100,000 people in space agencies and contractor facilities in 37 U.S. states and throughout the world are involved in this endeavor.

HOUSTON -- NASA Television will broadcast two special messages from International Space Station crew members, one that urges all Americans to exercise their right to vote and another marking the station's 10th birthday.

The messages will be broadcast beginning at 11 a.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 27, on both standard definition and high-definition NASA TV. The HD version also will be broadcast at 11 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Speeding 210 miles above Earth at five miles per second, Expedition 18 Commander E. Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will join millions of Americans and cast their votes in the Nov. 4 election. Thanks to a Texas bill passed in 1997, Fincke and Chamitoff will join several past astronauts who have voted from orbit.

Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station crew docked their Soyuz TMA-13 to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module at 4:26 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 5:55 a.m. A welcome ceremony and a safety briefing for the new arrivals followed.

The new crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:01 a.m. EDT Sunday to begin a six-month stay in space.

With Fincke, an Air Force colonel, and Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:01 a.m. EDT Sunday to begin a six-month stay in space.

Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit, and its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterward.

With Fincke, an Air Force colonel, and Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

American billionaire Charles Simonyi, a computer software executive who paid more than $20 million to fly to the International Space Station aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule in spring 2007, will train for a second Soyuz trip to the space station in spring 2009.

Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures announced Tuesday that Simonyi will be the first repeat customer since the company began organizing space missions for private citizens in 2001.

http://www.space.com/news/080930-simonyi-spacetourist.html

Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing to return home next month aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, while Russian engineers believe they've isolated the glitch that sent the last two landings careening off-course, mission managers said Thursday.

Expedition 17 station commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko are due to land on Oct. 23 to end a six-month mission that included spacewalk surgery on their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft to help engineers understand why one of five separation explosive bolts on similar vehicles failed to fire during the recent landings.

A new Progress cargo carrier launched to the International Space Station at 3:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday with almost 2.7 tons of fuel, air, water, propellant and other supplies and equipment aboard.

The Expedition 17 crew members set up video cameras and reviewed rendezvous procedures for Friday's docking of the ISS Progress 30 (P30) cargo ship.

The station's 30th Progress unpiloted spacecraft brings to the orbiting laboratory more than 1,900 pounds of propellant, more than 110 pounds of oxygen, almost 465 pounds of water and 2,865 pounds of dry cargo. Total cargo weight is 5,357 pounds.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took some time to update their orbiting laboratory's antivirus software to ensure their laptops are safeguarded against intrusions like one caught in July.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko spent some time today updating the antivirus protection software on laptop computers in the station's Russian segment, said NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The activity is one that would be familiar to computer owners on Earth with machines that use constantly updated commercial antivirus software, he told me.

Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, aboard the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth, is ready to take your questions. Here's your chance to hear direct from space. Chamitoff's schedule will not allow him to answer many questions, but he will attempt to answer a few each week. To submit your question, post it as a comment below. Please include your name, age and location. Questions will be transmitted to Greg from Mission Control each week and his answers to a few of them will be available here.

Many past shuttle and station crews have answered questions from the web. You can take a look at those archives at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/feedback/expert/index.html.