Soyuz crew blasts off

The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-20 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome. -- PHOTO: AP

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan) - ASTRONAUTS from the US, Russia and Italy blasted off into the darkness early on Thursday, casting a warm orange glow over the chilly plains of Kazakhstan with their Soyuz spacecraft as they began a mission to the International Space Station.

Russia's Dmitry Kondratyev, Nasa astronaut Catherine Coleman and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli of Italy rode into space on the Soyuz TMA-20, which plans to dock at the orbiting laboratory on Friday.

Family and colleagues of the crew waited nervously before the launch, which kicked off with a piercing white flash succeeded by a roaring wall of sound.

Within seconds, the rocket seemed little more than a blur of incandescent flames fading into the distance.

Officials at the viewing platform gave status updates at 20-second intervals over loudspeakers until reaching the nine-minute mark, indicating the ship had reached the relative safety of orbit, prompting a lively round of cheers.

At that moment, a plush toy tiger that Coleman brought as the crew's mascot began floating in front of her, signalling the beginning of weightlessness as the spaceship reached an altitude of more than 200km above Earth, according to Nasa television footage. -- AP