Russian cargo ship Progress M-64 set off from Kazakhstan overnight on Wednesday for the International Space Station, the centre for control of space flights (Tsoup) told national news agencies.

The spacecraft was launched "as planned" at a little after midnight local time (2023 GMT) and is due to arrive at the ISS on Saturday, said a spokesman.

Progress is delivering a three-tonne cargo of combustible energy materials, water, oxygen, food and medicine for the three-man ISS crew after a problem with static discharge was identified as coming from solar panels used to run the computers which control oxygen and water supplies on the ISS.

The vessel is also taking a batch of snails for experiments looking at tissue regeneration in space.