File image of Progress freighter departing the space station. Credit: NASA

An unmanned Russian resupply ship, parked at the International Space Station since June, departed the orbiting laboratory complex Thursday for a month-long scientific mission before it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.

Just a week after a twin freighter undocked from a different space station port, the Progress M1-10 detached from the Pirs module at 3:42 p.m. EDT (1942 GMT).

As the Progress undocked, the station was flying 240 statute miles over eastern China. The Progress was filled with items no longer needed on the station and trash.

Expedition 7 commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA science officer Ed Lu monitored the autonomous operation and kept tabs as the Progress backed away from the Station.

For the next month, Russian flight controllers will conduct several scientific experiments with the Progress, using its television cameras to capture imagery of sites of ecological interest to Russian researchers while maintaining a safe distance away from the station. Once those experiments are completed, the Progress will automatically fire its engines to drop out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

A new Progress vehicle, the 12th launched in support of the International Space Station, successfully arrived last Saturday, carrying food, fuel, water and supplies.

Thursday's departure frees up the Pirs module docking port for next month's arrival of the Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle with the next resident crew -- Expedition 8 -- along with European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain.

Expedition 8 commander Mike Foale, Soyuz commander and station flight engineer Alexander Kaleri, and Duque are scheduled to be launched October 18 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will dock two days later.

Duque will spend eight days aboard the ISS conducting science experiments under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Duque will return to Earth on Oct. 28 with Malenchenko and Lu.

Foale and Kaleri will spend almost 200 days on the Station.