Russian Rocket Blasts Off On Historic Mission

KOROLYOV (Reuters) -- A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts on board has blasted off from Kazakhstan in a mission that will increase the International Space Station crew to six for the first time.

Belgian Frank de Winne, Canadian Robert Thirsk, and Russian Roman Romanenko lifted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as planned, an official at Russian Mission Control outside Moscow said.