Russia launches manned spacecraft to ISS

Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-06M blasted off with a crew of three on board from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon, federal space agency Roscosmos said. Live webcast from Roscosmos showed that the spaceship, carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin and NASA's Kevin Ford, was launched at 14:51 Moscow time (1051 GMT) from the space center. A few minutes after the launch, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and reached the designated orbit, Roscosmos said in an announcement. Among the three crew members, Novitsky has been named commander of the new mission on the International Space Station (ISS), which will last five months. It was Ford's first travel to the ISS with a Russian Soyuz rocket. He is the only one among the three who has space travel experience. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock at 16:51 Moscow time (1251 GMT) Thursday in an automated mode, before the three join the current ISS crew, namely NASA's Sunita Williams, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide. The new crew would conduct more than 50 scientific experiments during their stay in the ISS, Roscosmos said. After the retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet, Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is the only way for astronauts to reach the ISS at least until 2015.