Russia launches manned spacecraft to space station

The Russian Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft
carrying the crew of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne
of Belgium, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut
Robert Thirsk blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome May 27, 2009. The
craft is on a mission that will increase the International Space Station
crew to six for the first time. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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Gallery

MOSCOW, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A Russian spaceship with
three astronauts aboard blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan
on Wednesday, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said.

Live broadcast from Russian television showed the
Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft successfully lifted off at 14:34 p.m. Moscow time
(1034GMT) from the Baikonur space center.

It is scheduled to dock with the International Space
Station (ISS) at 16:16 p.m. Moscow time (1216 GMT) on Friday.

On board the capsule are Roman Romanenko, Franc De
Winne and Robert Thirsk, the crew of the 20th ISS expedition, who respectively
come from Russia, Belgium and Canada.

Once the three astronauts reach the space station,
the number of ISS permanent crew members will have for the first time increased
to six.

Currently, there are three astronauts at the ISS,
namely, American Michael Barratt, Japanese Koichi Wakata and Russian Gennady
Padalka.

It will be the first time for all the five partners
of the ISS -- Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan, the United States
and Canada -- to work at the space station orbiting 350 km above the earth
together.

It is reported that the new expedition crew will live
at the ISS for six months, and conduct docking missions between the ISS and
several spacecrafts, including U.S. space shuttles, Russia's Progress spaceship
and Japan's first cargo spacecraft HTV.

Some scientific experiments will be carried out, too,
along with one space walk.

Additionally, the Russian
astronauts will complete the docking between Russian small research module and
the ISS, which will enable Russia to conduct much more experiments in space.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft
carrying the crew of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne
of Belgium, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut
Robert Thirsk blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome May 27, 2009. The
craft is on a mission that will increase the International Space Station
crew to six for the first time. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo
Gallery

The Russian Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft carrying the crew of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome May 27, 2009. The craft is on a mission that will increase the International Space Station crew to six for the first time. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery