Soyuz spaceship blasts off for ISS mission

Since the retirement of the space shuttles, the US is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the space station, at £37m each

The Soyuz TMA-04M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/AFP/Getty Images

A Soyuz spaceship carrying two Russians and one American astronaut has blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) after more than a month's delay over a problem with the hull of the Russian-built capsule.

Nasa astronaut Joseph Acaba, veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, who is departing on his first space flight, launched in clear skies aboard the Soyuz TMA-04M rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

 

The trio will berth early on Wednesday, joining Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Nasa's Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers aboard the ISS.

Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, the US is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the ISS, which costs $60m (£37m) per person.

Moscow hopes a smooth mission will begin to restore confidence in its space programme after a string of launch mishaps last year.

Tuesday's flight was delayed from 30 March to allow Russia's partly state-owned space contractor, RKK Energia, to prepare a new capsule for launch after an accident during pressure tests damaged the Soyuz crew capsule.

The previous crew of three at the ISS returned from the station in late April, following a delay due to safety fears after an unmanned Russian Progress craft taking supplies to the station broke up in the atmosphere in August.

That was one of five botched launches last year that marred celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin's first human space flight, including a long-awaited unmanned mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.