Moscow: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off on Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the world's first female space tourist and Russian-US crew to the International Space Station.
The rocket launched from the Russian base at 04:09 GMT carried a Soyuz TMA-9 capsule and its three passengers: Iranian-born US citizen and millionaire tourist Anousheh Ansari, NASA's Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.
The Soviet-designed spacecraft headed for orbit less than a day after the US space shuttle Atlantis pulled away from the orbiting station and began its journey back to Earth.
Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria were to join German astronaut Thomas Reiter on the station just over 48 hours after liftoff.
Travelling with the new crew was Ansari, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur who has paid a reported $20 million to become the fourth private astronaut to take a trip on a Russian spacecraft and visit the station.
"I'm just so happy to be here," she said ebulliently as she entered the rocket Monday, watched by about a dozen relatives, including her husband and mother, as well as the other crew members' families, space officials and reporters.
Ansari, 40, was due to return to Earth on September 29, along with cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who have been on the station since April.
