Around the World: Russia
China Daily | Updated: 2009-12-21 07:42
Space launch today
Astronauts from the United States, Russia and Japan are poised for their holiday season space mission today, when they were to blast off overnight to the International Space Station from Russia's remote space complex in southern Kazakhstan.
Their Soyuz TMA-17 rocket was primed to launch before dawn at the Baikonur launch pad - where Yuri Gagarin made the first human trip into orbit in 1961 - for a mission that will boost the number of crew at the orbital laboratory to five members.
If achieved it would be the first-ever launch of a Soyuz spaceship on a winter night.
(China Daily 12/21/2009 page11)
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