MOSCOW, May 27 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian Soyuz-FG booster rocket, carrying a Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft, successfully lifted off from the Baikonur space center en route to the International Space Station, Mission Control said on Wednesday.
The spacecraft, which went into orbit shortly after lifting off, is carrying the 20th Expedition to the ISS.
"The launch went to schedule. The craft is due to dock with the ISS on May 29 at 16:36 Moscow Time [12:36 GMT] in automatic regime," the spokesperson said.
The 20th Expedition comprises flight engineer Frank De Winne from the European Space Agency, Robert Thirsk from the Canadian Space Agency and Russia's Roman Romanenko.
The astronauts will join the current Expedition 19 crew, comprising Russian Commander Gennady Padalka, U.S. Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
During the upcoming 180-day mission, the six-member crew will receive and unload three Russian Progress craft and a Japanese HTV-1 space freighter, conduct two spacewalks and carry out a series of scientific experiments.
The head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, earlier described the mission as unique, saying that "representatives of five countries - Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and Belgium - will for the first time work at the station simultaneously."
