Russian, Japanese, US crew blasts off Soyuz successfully

A trio of Russian, Japanese andU.S. astronauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spaceship on Sundayfor a four-month mission on the International Space Station(ISS) that Moscow hopes will help restore confidence in itsspace programme.Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronautSunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide launchedsuccessfully aboard the Soyuz TMA-05M rocket from the Baikonurcosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0240 GMT (2240 EDT on Saturday).They are scheduled to berth early on Tuesday (late MondayEDT), joining NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and Russiancosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin aboard the ISS, a$100 billion research complex orbiting 240 miles (385 km) aboveEarth.The Soyuz had a very smooth ride into space, a spokesmanfor NASA said during a live broadcast on the agencys televisionchannel. The rocket blazed a bright orange trail through cloudyskies above the Kazakh steppe.Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, theUnited States is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to theISS, which costs the nation $60 million per person.Moscow hopes a successful mission will help to restoreconfidence in its once-pioneering space programme after a stringof launch mishaps last year, including the failure of a missionto return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.The previous Soyuz launch on May 15 was delayed by more thanone month to allow Russias partly state-owned space contractor,RKK Energia, to prepare a new capsule for launch after anaccident during pressure tests damaged the Soyuz crew capsule.There were no such delays with Sundays launch.The most tense, the most difficult part (of the launch) hasbeen successfully implemented, said Vladimir Popovkin, head ofRussian space agency Roscosmos.I have just spoken to the crew. They are feeling great,Russian news agencies quoted Popovkin as saying in Baikonur. Ihave no doubts that all will go according to plan.Malenchenko, a 50-year-old cosmonaut on his fifth spacevoyage, loosened his straps about 20 minutes after blast-offafter conducting air pressure checks.Asked by Mission Control how the crew was feeling, hereplied: Good. A doll given to Malenchenko by his daughterdangled from the roof of the capsule.Williams and Hoshide are both on their second space flightand their first aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. They, along withMalenchenko, are scheduled to return to Earth in mid-November.The previous crew of three at the ISS returned on July 1.Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and EuropeanSpace Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers helped to dock the firstprivately owned spacecraft during a six-month stint in orbit.At the end of May, this crew released Space ExplorationTechnologies unmanned Dragon cargo, which arrived as part of atest flight and was the first privately owned spaceship to reachthe 15-nation ISS project.Sundays launch took place less than three weeks afterChinas Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth, ending amission that put the countrys first woman in space.Although China is far from catching up with the UnitedStates and Russia, the Shenzhou 9 marked Chinas fourth mannedspace mission since 2003 and comes as budget restraints andshifting priorities have held back U.S. manned space launches.