A Russian Soyuz rocket with 3 astronauts blasts off to the International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station has blasted off two days after its launch was aborted at the last minute. The spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus launched smoothly on Saturday from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The launch had been planned for Thursday but was halted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled liftoff. The space capsule atop the rocket separated and went into orbit eight minutes after the launch and began a two-day, 34-orbit trip to the space station. The space station is one of the last remaining areas of collaboration between Russia and the West.