A US-Russian mission blasted off for the International Space Station Monday, soaring into a perfectly blue sky above Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome.  

The Soyuz TMA-4 craft carrying a US astronaut, Russian and Dutch space explorers took off at 03:18 GMT, trailing orange flames and leaving only a white puff behind. It is expected to dock with the 16-nation station tomorrow.

It is the third manned mission since the halt of the US shuttle program.

American Michael Fincke, Russian Gennady Padalka and Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, representing the European Space Agency, are to spend two days en route to the ISS aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft.

The Russian-built capsule is the only means to get to the orbital outpost since the suspension of US space shuttle flights following the February 2003 Columbia disaster.

"Our Russian partners are picking up the ball," Fincke said. "It's very symbolic what we can do when people all over the world work together." Just before boarding the spacecraft, the trio paused to wave farewell to relatives, space officials and others who had traveled to the desolate Baikonur cosmodrome, on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Padalka held up two fingers in a victory sign, Fincke gave a thumbs-up and Kuipers brandished a clenched fist. Russian, US and European space officials monitoring the launch from Russian Mission Control outside Moscow watched the crew on a monitor transmitting images from inside the capsule.

The three waved and blew kisses before blasting off, and shook hands after the spacecraft entered orbit approximately nine minutes after the 7:19 (03:19 GMT) lift-off, having shed its boosters along the way. Applause rippled through Mission Control as the spacecraft reached orbit and its solar panels unfolded.

Padalka and Fincke, who were initially trained to fly on a US shuttle, will spend 183 days on the space station. Kuipers will return after nine days with the station's current crew, US astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, who have been in orbit since October.

Tourist trip

Russia has launched all manned and cargo missions to the space station for more than a year after the United States grounded its flights after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on re-entry, killing the seven astronauts on board.

Russia has struggled financially in its role as sole lifeline to the station and last month approached NASA with a money-saving proposal to double the length of astronauts' missions to a year.

It has said the United States was likely to agree to it since there was no other choice.

Extending mission times would free up places for eight-day missions for space tourists who will pay US$20 million, the cost of a single-use Soyuz craft.

So far two space tourists have made the trip and a third, US businessman Gregory Olsen, is scheduled to lift off next year.

The Russian plan for longer missions would allow up to four tourist trips a year.

NASA Deputy Director and former astronaut Fred Gregory said yesterday it was too early for the United States to commit to year-long missions, because it was not clear how they would fit into their own ambitious plans for manned missions to Mars.

Yesterday's mission took four million worms to the ISS for research. Another project, to examine how plants grow in space, could one day help to pave the way for humans to travel to Mars.

Differences over launch

The launch comes as Russia increasingly feels that its efforts to keep the space station staffed at the expense of its own space program are not appreciated enough by NASA.

"We have fulfilled all our obligations," Sergei Gorbunov, the chief spokesman for Russia's space agency, said in Baikonur on Sunday.

"Russia is taking off its last pair of pants, while the United States and Japan are cutting down their (space) budgets," Gorbunov said. "This cannot last long."

Facing the need to mobilize its scarce resources to keep the station afloat while the US shuttle fleet remains grounded, Russia had to freeze the construction of its own station's segment and some commercial projects, including selling space trips to rich tourists.

NASA has turned down the Russian space agency's proposal to provide financial backing for delivering more crew and cargo to the station.

Russia is now pressing NASA to agree to extend crew stints on the space station from the current six months to a year a move that would allow Russia to make money selling rides to handsomely paying space visitors.

"They will have to agree to our conditions. We are not asking for something impossible," Gorbunov said.

The missions sent to the international space station by Russia since the suspension of NASA's shuttle program have been mainly aimed at keeping the station afloat.

Soyuz spacecraft can take aboard only three astronauts and unmanned Progress cargo ships have a very limited cargo capacity compared to shuttles, and the underfunded Russian space agency cannot afford more frequent flights.

NASA spokesman Rob Navias said in Baikonur that shuttle flights might resume "by this time next year."

The two space powers also differ on the station's prospects.

Under the original agreements between partners in the 16-nation space station the United States, Russia, members of the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada the station was supposed to have already been manned by six crew members this year.

However, NASA is aiming at a three-member crew even after resuming shuttle flights. "Six (crew members) has been a goal, but whether we get there or not has yet to be seen," Navias said in Baikonur.

"There is no point having three people there," said Gorbunov, citing earlier agreements envisaging three of the six crew members on the station are supposed to be Russians. "We may ask one day: What is an American doing up there?"

Dutch astronaut takes cheese

For the Dutchman, the maiden lift-off was a dream come true and one witnessed by hordes of spectators who flew from the Netherlands to the arid Kazakh steppe to cheer on their hero.

Armed with a comic book and a block of cheese, Kuipers expects his upcoming maiden space mission to be like a camping holiday with friends. "We are good friends," a happy-looking Kuipers told reporters in Baikonur alongside his colleagues from behind a glass wall where the crew were in pre-launch quarantine. "It's like going camping with two friends in a small tent."

Kuipers said he would be trying to take some mature Dutch cheese with him and had already packed a science fiction comic book.

"I am very relieved and very glad for Andre that he finally starts his dream journey," said Kuipers' girlfriend Helen Conijn after the launch. "His dream was to go into space that dream came true."

Also watching were Kuipers' young daughters Megan and Robin, who held up a multi-colored banner reading "Good luck, daddy. We love you." Kuipers' father, Bram, proudly filmed his son's debut launch on his camcorder.

Kuipers said he would also take a photograph of the seven astronauts who died in February 2003 when the US shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry. Kuipers was a good friend of some of them.

(China Daily April 20, 2004)