Russian Soyuz launches crew of three to space station

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday and climbed into space for a four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station, carrying a veteran Russian cosmonaut, a U.S. test pilot-astronaut and a German volcanologist to boost the lab's crew back to six. With family members and dignitaries looking on at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Soyuz rocket roared to life with a rush of fiery exhaust at 3:57:40 p.m. EDT (GMT-4, 1:57 a.m. Thursday local time) and quickly vaulted away from the launch pad, the same firing stand used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age. More

(Source: CBS News - May 29)