Article Posted on : - Jun 08, 2011

BAIKONUR (BNS): Russia’s Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft carrying three astronauts has blasted off from Kazakhstan and heading towards the International Space Station.

The manned spacecraft was lifted off by the Soyuz-FG rocket from Baikonur’s pad 1 (Gagarin’s Launch Pad) at 2012 GMT Tuesday, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The crew members – commander Sergey Volkov from Roscosmos, flight engineers Satoshi Furukawa from Japan’s JAXA and Michael Fossum from US’ NASA – are scheduled to dock with the orbital laboratory at 2122 GMT on Thursday.

They will stay at the ISS until mid-November and witness US’s last space shuttle, Atlantis’s launch, scheduled for July 8.

The Soyuz TMA-02M is a vehicle of the new series of Soyuz family which is equipped with digital control system.

Tuesday’s launch was the second flight for the upgraded capsule.