Soyuz Team Takes Off for Space Station

A team of U.S., Russian and Dutch astronauts blasted off on a Soyuz spaceship early today in the third manned flight to the orbiting international space station since last year’s Columbia shuttle disaster.

Russian flight commander Gennady Padalka and American flight engineer Michael Fincke will spend about six months in space, replacing the crew currently on board the partially completed station. Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency will conduct a variety of experiments during his 11-day mission.

He will return to Earth with the outgoing two-man crew, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, who have been on board since Oct. 20.

Speaking from behind a glass wall at the Russian space center in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where the crew was in pre-launch quarantine Sunday, Padalka said that with the U.S. shuttle grounded, Russia’s Soyuz spaceships and Progress cargo vehicles are the only means available to keep the station functioning -- and that its construction cannot be completed until the much larger shuttles are flying again.

“The biggest goal is to keep the space station in good condition while the space shuttle is not around,” Padalka said.

It is still not clear when the U.S. shuttles, which were grounded after last year’s Columbia disaster, will fly again. But NASA spokesman Rob Navias told reporters in Baikonur that shuttle flights might resume “by this time next year.”

Cooperation in the space station effort “has showed Americans and us that we cannot live without each other, and only close cooperation will make it possible for mankind to send expeditions to far-away planets,” Padalka said.

The space station is a $100-billion project of the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe.

Fincke called Baikonur a beautiful and historic place. The astronauts took off from a launch pad named after Yuri Gagarin, who in 1961 became the first man in space. They are due to link up with the space station Wednesday.

Kuipers described the Soyuz flight as “like going camping with two friends in a small tent.” He said he would bring some Dutch cheese and a science fiction comic book along on the flight. He added that he would also bring a photograph of the seven astronauts who died in the Columbia disaster, some of whom were close friends.

Padalka said he would carry a bearded statuette as a good-luck charm, as well as photographs of his family and Russian, American and Dutch flags, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The cosmonaut carried the same statuette with him during a mission to the Mir orbiting station in the mid-1990s, the agency said. This is the first trip into space for Fincke and Kuipers.

Before going to sleep midafternoon Sunday in preparation for their early rise for today’s flight, the three astronauts watched a Soviet-era movie called “The White Sun of the Desert,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported, describing it as another opportunity for Fincke and Kuipers to practice their Russian before the flight. Crews of mixed nationality communicate with one another in Russian and English.

Just before boarding the spacecraft today, the crew waved to relatives and other onlookers. Fincke gave a thumbs-up, and Padalka held up two fingers in a victory sign.