Space station launch is set

A Russian Soyuz rocket was rolled on to the launch pad at Baikonur today in final preparation for the launch of a three-man crew to the international space station.

It will blast off from the Central Asian steppe on Wednesday night carrying Malaysian Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Russian Yuri Malenchenko and American Peggy Whitson, the first woman to command the international space station.