BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - Russia launched a spacecraft with three astronauts on board from the Kazakh Baikonur space center early on Tuesday, Xinhua correspondents reported from the site.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of US astronaut Ronald Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexandr Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko, leaves a trail across sky on this long exposure picture, as it blasts off at the Baikonur cosmodrome April 5, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft atop a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket blasted off at 02:18 am Moscow time (2218 GMT April 4), sending to the International Space Station (ISS) Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko and US astronaut Ronald Garn.

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The Soyuz TMA-21, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was scheduled to dock with the ISS at 03:18 am Moscow time (2318 GMT April 6) on Thursday.

According to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the three new crew members are expected to spend 170 days in the ISS. During the period, they will receive two US space shuttles and three Russian Progress cargo ships, conduct a spacewalk and carry out over 40 experiments.

The launch is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first flight into space in 1961 carried out by Gagarin.

International Space Station (ISS) crew members US astronaut Ronald Garan (C, Russian cosmonauts Alexandr Samokutyaev (bottom) and Andrey Borisenko wave as they board the Russian Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, before blast off at Baikonur cosmodrome April 5, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]