Three make way to Space Station

A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome for a two-day journey to the International Space Station.

Their Soyuz spacecraft was emblazoned with the name and portrait of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space whose historic journey into orbit was 50 years ago this month.

The pre-dawn launch from Russia's cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is the first for Russians Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev.

The Nasa astronaut travelling with them, Ron Garan, has made one previous trip into space, on a space shuttle mission in 2008.

They are to join three other astronauts already aboard the orbiting station: Russia's Dmitry Kondratyev, Nasa astronaut Catherine Coleman and Italy's Paolo Nespoli.