spacetoday.net: Soyuz launched to ISS

Posted: Fri, Oct 8, 2010, 7:09 AM ET (1109 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-01M launch (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft launched early Friday carrying three new ISS crew members. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 pm EDT Thursday (2310 GMT Thursday, 5:10 am local time Friday) and placed the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft into orbit. On board the spacecraft are Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka and American astronaut Scott Kelly. The Soyuz, the first of a new, modernized generation of spacecraft, is scheduled to dock with the ISS Saturday evening. Kaleri, Kelly, and Skripochka will joint the current ISS crew of Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker, and Fyodor Yurchikhin. Among those attending the launch was Anna Chapman, who gained notoriety this summer when she was deported from the US on allegations of espionage.