Europe launched the ship Edoardo Amaldi onto the space station

An unmanned spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched into orbit on March 23 and this is Europe's heaviest launch ever.

The 20-ton ship, named after the 20th-century Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi, was launched into space by Ariane 5 at 1:34 am local time.

The unmanned ship will bring supplies to six astronauts currently in ISS, Oleg Kononenko, Anton Shkaplerov and Russian Anatoli Ivanishin; Dan Burbank and Don Pettit Americans; and Dutch Dutchman Andre Kuipers, about 400km from Earth, have been around since 2000.

The ship Edoardo Amaldi is the third freighter to be launched in ISS from Europe under a contract with the space station. three times the number of goods that Ship Progress, another Russian ISS support vessel can carry.

Supplies include oxygen, water, food, clothing, sanitary equipment, medical equipment, laboratory accessories and supplies, according to European aerospace company Astrium, the ship manufacturer. .