A new crew for the International Space Station has blasted off from Russia's Baikonur space port in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket. The two Russians and one US astronaut are to join three others – a Russian, an American and an Italian – aboard the station. Their spacecraft is emblazoned with the name and portrait of the USSR's Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Gagarin's historic journey took place 50 years ago this month. The Russian Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft was launched on a Soyuz-FG rocket at 0418 local time (2218 GMT Monday), and is due to dock with the space station at 0518 on Thursday.