Three new ISS crew members launch from Baikonur
NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev launched in their Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:18 p.m. EDT Monday (4:18 a.m. Tuesday, Kazakhstan time) beginning a two-day journey to the International Space Station, Kazakhstan Today reports.
Almaty. April 5. Kazakhstan Today - NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev launched in their Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:18 p.m. EDT Monday (4:18 a.m. Tuesday, Kazakhstan time) beginning a two-day journey to the International Space Station, Kazakhstan Today reports.
A new crew for the International Space Station has blasted off from Russia's Baikonur space port in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket, BBC News reported.
The two Russians and one US astronaut are to join three others - a Russian, an American and an Italian - aboard the station.
Their spacecraft is emblazoned with the name and portrait of the USSR's Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.
Gagarin's historic journey took place 50 years ago this month.
The Russian Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft was launched on a Soyuz-FG rocket at 0418 local time (2218 GMT Monday), and is due to dock with the space station at 0518 on Thursday.
Russian crewmen Andrei Borisenko, 46, and Alexander Samokutyayev, 40, are making their first journey to the space station while America's Ron Garan, 49, spent 13 days in space on a shuttle mission in 2008.
The mission is a centrepiece of celebrations for the half century of manned spaceflight and there had been worries it could miss the anniversary after a technical problem forced a delay from the original March 30 lift-off date, The Australian reports.
Russian state television said the crew were taking a recording of the famous radio exchanges between Gagarin in his tiny capsule and chief Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolyov on the ground from half a century ago.
Also going to space was an icon presented by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In a sign of the importance of the mission, air security is being ensured by eight planes and 12 helicopters around eastern Russian and Kazakhstan, federal aviation agency Rosaviatsia said in a statement.
Gagarin's 108-minute mission - which ended with him parachuting down into a rural area of central Russia - came at the height of the Cold War but these days the spaceflight is promoted as a joint endeavour between the former foes.
Russia's Soyuz delivery system will later this year become the sole means for taking humans to the ISS when NASA takes its shuttle out of service, leaving the United States reliant on the more rudimentary Russian technology.
At the time of Garagrin's flight, even the location of the Baikonur cosmodrome was a tightly-guarded secret and the presence of Americans anywhere near would have been unthinkable.
The three - who will spend the next six months in space - will join on board NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Europe's Paolo Nespoli and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev.
Photo: BBC News
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