A Russian rocket has blasted off from a launch facility in Kazakhstan, carrying a three-member crew to the international space station.
The Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off on schedule on Wednesday, soaring into a darkening sky above the Kazakh steppe.
It was topped by a spacecraft that is to deliver US astronaut Peggy Whitson, veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian physician, to the orbital station in about two days.
Whitson is to be the first woman to command the international space station.
Thirty-five-year-old Shukor is Malaysia's first astronaut, who will stay in orbit for 11 days and carry out a series of experiments. |
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