Free Republic

<p>The spaceship, launched at 0318 GMT Monday from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, is expected to reach the station in two days.</p> <p>A Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut are scheduled spend the next six months on the orbital outpost.</p> <p>Commander Gennady Padalka, 45, and flight engineer Edward "Mike" Fincke, 37, will replace two colleagues who have lived aboard the complex since October.</p>

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A spacecraft that will carry a new crew to the international space station was hoisted into launch position Saturday in preparation for the third manned mission to the orbital outpost since NASA (news - web sites)'s shuttle disaster sidelined the U.S. space fleet. The 132-foot rocket topped by a Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft was carefully rolled out of a hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome and slowly drawn by rail to the launch site for manned space missions. Police and two fire engines escorted the rocket on its two-hour journey. A sniffer dog ran ahead of the train checking...