Russian rocket transports crew to International Space Station

A RUSSIAN rocket blasted off yesterday from southern Kazakhstan, transporting a Nasa astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz craft carrying Californian Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko as Expedition 24, rose from the Baikonur cosmodrome on schedule and will dock with the space station, orbiting about 320km above the Earth, tomorrow.