Soyuz blasts off to deliver international crew

The lift-off at 1909 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome will bring US astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli to the station for a five-month stay in space.

They will join fellow expedition members Scott Kelly of the US and Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka of Russia, who have been living on the ISS since October.

The Soyuz is to dock at the ISS Friday. During their mission, Kondratyev and Skripochka will conduct two spacewalks to install a communications antenna and do other maintenance work.

Three supply vehicles are also due to arrive at the station in January and February, including a Japanese cargo vehicle, a European Space Agency vehicle and a Russian module.

The crew will also keep busy with station maintenance and scientific experiments. But Kondratyev hopes he will have time for another of his hobbies - karate.

"I have no idea whether I'll be able to do it in weightlessness, but I'll try," he said. The space shuttle Discovery is due to pay a visit in February after its launch was delayed.

The shuttle fleet is to go into retirement next year, leaving the Soyuz as the only craft available to take astronauts into space until US plans to develop commercial crew transport can be enacted.