A new expedition crew and a space tourist are speeding toward the International Space Station this morning after a rainy-day launch aboard a Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, American astronaut Michael Barratt and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi set sail at 7:49 a.m. from the same launch pad where Yuri Gagarin launched 48 years ago.
You can watch the launch live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage. Refresh this page, too, for periodic updates.
The crew reported high gravitational forces during liftoff, but nothing out of the ordinary. Live video beamed back from the rocket in flight showed the crew in their Soyuz capsule.
Click to enlarge this look at the rocket:
Discovery's astronauts cleared the way for the launch with their departure Wednesday from the station.
Padalka, Barratt and Simonyi are scheduled to arrive at the station at 9:15 a.m. Saturday.
The shuttle and its crew are due back at Kennedy Space Center at 1:42 p.m. that same day.
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