Baikonur (Kazakhstan), Apr 26: A Soyuz TMA-2 rocket with American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko aboard blasted off for the International Space Station today on a mission intended to keep space exploration going despite the Columbia tragedy. From deep in the Kazakh Steppe, the 40-meter Russian rocket, the latest version of the world's longest-serving manned spacecraft, soared into space at 7:54 Moscow time (1024 ist) on its way to the international space station, some 400 kilometers above earth. Shortly after liftoff, the rocket was safely in orbit, space officials said. Usually just a reserve, safety vehicle, the Soyuz -based loosely on the same technology that sent Yuri Gagarin into Orbit in 1961-is now earth's only link with the US$60 billion space outpost. NASA and the Russian space programme are relying on it to get the three-man crew currently on the station home, and ferry up their replacements. Colombia disintegrated over Texas on Feb 1, killing all seven astronauts on board and raising questions about what would happen the space station.

Russia agreed to step in to take up the slack, a move that both NASA and Russian space officials have said is testament to the new era of cooperation between their agencies, once fierce competitors.

Russian officials rearranged their space schedule to accommodate Lu and Malenchenko, who initially had planned to hitch a ride to the station on board the Shuttle Atlantis.
They will replace US astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, who have been in space since November.
Bureau Report