CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.- Russias Zvezda Service Module continued closing in on the InternationalSpace Station this week as flight controllers in Moscow carried out a dressrehearsal for a planned docking next week.

Technicians inKazakhstan, meanwhile, began loading up a Progress space freighter withsupplies and equipment that will be launched to the international outpost nextmonth.

A near-identical copyof the core lab for Russias space station Mir, Zvezda now is scheduled to dockwith the international outpost at 8:53 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday(Wednesday, 12:53 a.m. GMT).

The docking time which is seven minutes later than originally planned - was refined based on anongoing series of Zvezda engine firings. The so-called rendezvous burns aredesigned to put the module in close proximity with the existing seven-storystation.

In preparation forthe link-up, Russian flight controllers conducted a full-scale dockingsimulation, brushing up on all the steps and key events that will lead up tothe coupling of Zvezda and the international station.

Primary and back-updocking systems aboard Zvezda were tested as part of that rehearsal. A fullanalysis of the test data still was ongoing, but flight controllers reportedthat both systems performed as expected.

The problem-freetesting of other critical Zvezda systems also is moving ahead as the 43-foot(13-meter) module and the international station edge toward each other inspace.

The space station aswell as the Zvezda Service Module continue their orbital ballet with all theirsystems in excellent shape, NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said from the RussianMission Control Center in Korolev outside Moscow.

At BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan, meanwhile, technicians are loading up a Progressspace freighter scheduled for launch on a Soyuz rocket between Aug. 8 and Aug.10.

The cargo consists ofsupplies and equipment that will be used by the stations first full-timeresident crew, which is scheduled to arrive at the station in early November.

A visiting shuttlecrew now scheduled for launch from Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 8 will unloadthe cargo carrier.