A Russian rocket blasted off from the Russian Bakinour space facility in Kazakhstan early Friday, headed for the International Space Station. It is set to dock there early Sunday.
The three-man crew, including Russian commander Sergei Krikalev and American astronaut John Phillips, will remain on the station for six months. Also aboard, for a 10-day stay, is European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittorio from Italy.
One of the main tasks of the six-month mission is to observe the condition of the U.S. shuttle Discovery as it approaches the ISS and conduct a photo survey of the spacecraft's new insulating tiles.
The scheduled May or June launch of Discovery will be the first since the shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in 2003, killing all seven U.S. astronauts aboard.
Some information for this story provided by AP and AFP.
