Posted: Sat, Apr 26, 2003, 11:39 AM ET (1539 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket successfully launched its namesake spacecraft early Saturday, carrying the two-person Expedition Seven crew for the International Space Station. The Soyuz booster carrying the Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft lifted off on schedule from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 11:54 pm EDT Friday (0354 GMT Saturday). No problems were reported with the countdown or launch. The Soyuz spacecraft is carrying Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Ed Lu, the two members of the revised Expedition Seven crew. The two are scheduled to arrive at ISS at 1:56 am EDT (0556 GMT) Monday. The Expedition Six crew currently on ISS — Kenneth Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin, and Donald Pettit — will return to Earth on May 3 aboard the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft currently docked to ISS.
