BAIKONUR COSMODROME, KAZAKHSTAN - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan today carrying the Expedition 18 crew to the International Space Station. Riding with them was multimillionaire video game developer Richard Garriott, the son of former U.S. Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and who paid Russia upward of $30 million for a weeklong visit to the space station.
The rocket, topped by the Soyuz TMA-13 spcaecraft, lifted off from the same launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome where the world's first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, flew into space. The launch vehicle took off right on time at 3:01:29 a.m. EDT and soared into a nearly cloudless blue sky, its core stage and four liquid fueled strapon boosters forming a brilliant cross at the craft raced downrange on its way to orbit.
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