Russia on Monday morning successfully launched a manned spacecraft, which carries three astronauts including a replacement crew of two, toward the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

At 0318 GMT, a Soyuz rocket was launched from the cosmodrome, sending the Russian-made Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft into orbit toward the ISS with the crew of American, Dutch and Russian astronauts, officials at Russia's space mission control center outside Moscow said.

The spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered orbit about nine minutes after the liftoff and is expected to dock with the ISS on Wednesday morning.

Telemetric data indicated that the flight of the spaceship is proceeding in normal conditions, the officials said.

Two of the astronauts, American Edward Michael Fincke and Russian Gennady Padalka, will replace US astronaut Michael Foale and Russia's Alexei Kalery who have been working at the ISS since October.

Fincke and Padalka are expected to stay for six months and carry out two space walks in June and August to install equipment necessary for a European-built new automated transfer vehicle, due to arrive at the station in April 2005.

Dutchman Andre Kuipers is making his first voyage into space on behalf of the European Space Agency to conduct experiments, and will stay at the ISS for nine days before returning to earth on April 30 along with Foale and Kalery.

The ninth expedition will be the third two-person ISS crew. Padalka is a space flight veteran who spent 198 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1999.

The ninth expedition will be the first trip to space of NASA's astronaut Fincke.

Their tour of duty is scheduled to end in October when the tenth expedition crewmembers -- Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan S. Sharipov -- replace them.

The tenth expedition is scheduled to launch from Baikonur on Oct. 9 and dock Oct. 11. Padalka and Fincke are slated to undock and return to Earth on Oct. 19.

The modified Soyuz TMA manned transport spacecraft designed for use as a lifeboat for the International Space Station. It incorporated several changes to accommodate NASA requirements, including more latitude in the height and weight of the crew and improved parachute systems. The spacecraft also incorporates two new amber cockpit displays. In addition to the three crew, the TM could deliver up to 100 kg of payload to the station and return up to 50 kg.

ISS, the 16-nation floating space hub, used to be heavily reliant on US shuttle flights. But since the US shuttle program has been grounded after NASA's Columbia spaceship disintegrated on February 1, 2003, killing all seven crew on board, Russian Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships remain the sole means of transporting to the space station.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2004)