The launch clears the way for an American astronaut to return to Earth on March 30 aboard another Russian spacecraft.
Three cosmonauts blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday, caught up with the International Space Station after a two-orbit rendezvous and moved in for docking at a newly arrived Russian module. The cosmonauts are replacing three crew members — two Russians and an American — who are heading home at the end of the month to close out a record-setting flight.
"The interesting thing is, even back in 1975 during the Soviet Union, the Cold War, we were able to have cooperation in civilian space with the Russians, in Apollo-Soyuz . And that has continued. This very day, three cosmonauts from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-21/67S commander Oleg Artemyev, a space veteran, and two rookies, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, took off from Baikonur at 11:55 a.m. EDT atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the Soyuz was in space and on course for a two-orbit rendezvous with the space station.
Despite severely strained relations, space station operations have continued without interruption, and NASA television provided live coverage of the Soyuz launching, as usual, along with commentary from mission control at the Johnson Space Center.
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