Russian spaceship braced for traffic

A Russian Soyuz space craft launched into the morning skies over Kazakhstan yesterday, carrying three astronauts on their way to the International Space Station, where they will quickly start preparing for a frenzy of incoming traffic.

Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, and Japan’s Akihito Hoshide are set to travel two days before reaching their three colleagues already at the permanent space outpost.

Families and colleagues watched the launch from an observation platform in the Russian-leased cosmodrome in the dry southern steppes of this sprawling Central Asian nation.

Lift-off took place at the exact scheduled time of 8.40am (2.40am Irish time).

Despite withstanding intense G-force pressure, the three astronauts looked relaxed in televised footage as they performed a series of routine operations.

The Soyuz jettisoned three rocket booster stages as it was propelled into orbit, which takes just over nine minutes.

At that stage, a doll given to Malenchenko as a mascot by his daughter and suspended over the three astronauts floated out of view on television footage, indicating the craft had escaped the earth’s gravitational pull.

The shell that surrounds the capsule during the launch phase also peeled away. The solar arrays that deployed on the Soyuz after orbital entry will provide the craft with power during its two-day trip.

The Soyuz is schedule to dock with the space station at 4.52am Irish time tomorrow.

Japan’s HTV3 cargo ship will dock with the space station next week and will be the first of nine craft making contact with the orbiting satellite over a 17-day span.

Expeditions 32 and the incoming Expedition 33 have 33 experiments planned.