Indian-American record-setting astronaut Sunita Williams along with her two colleagues took off for her second space voyage on a Russian Soyuz rocket. It blasted off successfully from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday.

46-year-old NASA astronaut Williams, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide started their two-day voyage at O8.10 am IST for a four-month mission on the International Space Station ISS.

The Soyuz TMA spacecraft is due to dock with the ISS's Zvezda service module at 10.22 am IST on Tuesday.

Born in Euclid in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts, Williams, who had earlier lived and worked aboard the ISS forsix months in 2006-07, will further extend the record for the longest stay in space for a woman astronaut.

Ahead of the launch, she told reporters that the test mission laid the ground for a long-standing friendship and
collaboration in the space programme.
She also said that she will be excited to watch the London Summer Olympics from the station and put a much more global perspective on the mega sporting event beginning 27th July.