Live: Liftoff! Soyuz and new crew on their way

Live: Refresh this page for periodic updates and the latest still image from NASA TV. Click on the picture for a larger view. You can also click here to play NASA TV live video in a 2nd smaller window.

9:37 a.m. update: Launch replays are coming up on NASA TV. Click to link below the image above to launch our NASA TV viewer and watch the replays.

9:33 update: The next crew of the International Space Station is cruising toward the orbital outpost after a nine-minute flight into orbit. American astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Shiekh Muszaphar Sukor launched at 9:22 a.m. aboard a Soyuz rocket and all three stages of the vehicle performed flawlessly. The crew is scheduled to dock at the station at 10:52 a.m. EDT Friday.

9:22 a.m. update: The Soyuz rocket launched just as scheduled at 9:22 a.m. and the flight so far is proceeding without problems.

A Soyuz rocket and the 16th resident crew of the International Space Station are being readied for launch at Baikonur Cosmodrome and all systems appear to be working as intended. The weather is near perfect and the launch remains scheduled for 9:22 a.m. EDT.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is the commander aboard the Soyuz and American astronaut Peggy Whitson is serving as flight engineer. Also onboard is Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic doctor who wwill become the first Malaysian to fly in space.

You can watch a live webcast of the countdown and launch by clicking the link below the image above. Doing so will launch our NASA TV viewer.

Refresh this page for periodic updates.

Click to enlarge and save the photos below. They show the Soyuz rocket and the crew as they suited up and headed out to the launch pad earlier today. All are screen grabs from our NASA TV webcast.














The Soyuz rocket on the same pad where Yuri Gagarin launched in April 1961, becoming the first human to fly in space.














The crew boarding the Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.














Busses carried the Expedition 16 crew across the steppes of central Asia.














The crew before departing for the launch pad.














A crowd gathers to watch the crew depart for the pad.














The prime crew and their back-ups chat with well-wishers from behind a hermetically sealed glass partition. Flight surgeons with surgical masks watch on.














American astronaut Peggy Whitson, destined to become the first female commander of the International Space Station.