<p>A Russian rocket carrying a Japanese billionaire docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the country's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States.</p>.<p>Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier on Wednesday.</p>.<p>They docked with the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 1340 GMT, the Russian space agency said.</p>.<p>"We have contact," Roscosmos tweeted.</p>.<p>Their journey aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin took just over six hours, capping a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel.</p>.<p>Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, bursting into a market Russia is keen to defend.</p>.<p>A crowd at the launch site -- including Maezawa's family and friends -- braved freezing temperatures and cheered as the rocket blasted off into the grey sky, leaving a trail of orange flames before disappearing in the clouds.</p>.<p>"This has been a long process. It's so moving. I was about to cry," said Ryo Okubo, a lawyer for Maezawa's space projects.</p>.<p>"I'm really excited but he's also my friend so I'm worried about him," a longtime friend of the billionaire, 44-year-old Hiroyuki Sugimoto, told AFP.</p>.<p>Among the revellers was a family-of-three who won spots at the launch from out of a million applicants. The brother and sister were holding hand-drawn banners with Maezawa's face inside a sunflower and a picture of a rocket.</p>.<p>The trio will spend 12 days on the station where the Japanese tourists will document their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's popular YouTube channel.</p>.<p>The 46-year-old billionaire has set out 100 tasks to complete onboard, including hosting a badminton tournament.</p>.<p>The ISS is home to an international crew of seven people including two Russian cosmonauts and a Japanese astronaut.</p>.<p>Russia's Anton Shkaplerov welcomed the trio.</p>.<p>"We have already prepared dinner for you," he tweeted. "We are waiting for the hatches to open in a couple of hours!"</p>.<p>Maezawa also plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the moon operated by Musk's SpaceX.</p>.<p>He and his assistant are the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama travelled to the Mir station in 1990.</p>.<p>Russia has a history of shepherding self-funded tourists to space.</p>.<p>In partnership with US-based company Space Adventures, Roscosmos previously took seven tourists to the ISS since 2001 -- one of them twice.</p>.<p>The last was Canada's Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009, who was dubbed the first clown in space.</p>.<p>Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, praised Russia's return to the booming space tourism business.</p>.<p>"It's been 12 years. We've had to be very patient. We've had to be very creative. So, this is the culmination of a lot of effort from a lot of different people," he told AFP shortly after liftoff.</p>.<p>In October, Russia launched its first untrained cosmonauts into space since Laliberte's trip, delivering a Russian actress and director to the ISS where they filmed scenes for the first movie in orbit.</p>.<p>Moscow had stopped sending tourists to space after NASA retired its Space Shuttle in 2011, which left Russia with a monopoly on supplying the ISS.</p>.<p>NASA bought up all Soyuz launch seats for a reported $90 million per spot -- effectively ending tourist flights.</p>.<p>That changed last year when a SpaceX spacecraft successfully delivered its first astronauts to the ISS.</p>.<p>NASA began purchasing flights from SpaceX, stripping Russia of its monopoly and costing its cash-strapped space agency millions of dollars in revenue.</p>.<p>While the cost of tickets to space for tourists has not been disclosed, Space Adventures has indicated that they are in the range of $50-60 million.</p>.<p>Roscosmos plans to continue growing its space tourism business, already commissioning two Soyuz rockets for such trips.</p>.<p>"We will not give away this niche to the Americans. We are ready to fight for it," Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin said after the launch.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>A Russian rocket carrying a Japanese billionaire docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the country's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States.</p>.<p>Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier on Wednesday.</p>.<p>They docked with the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 1340 GMT, the Russian space agency said.</p>.<p>"We have contact," Roscosmos tweeted.</p>.<p>Their journey aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin took just over six hours, capping a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel.</p>.<p>Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all made breakthrough commercial tourism flights this year, bursting into a market Russia is keen to defend.</p>.<p>A crowd at the launch site -- including Maezawa's family and friends -- braved freezing temperatures and cheered as the rocket blasted off into the grey sky, leaving a trail of orange flames before disappearing in the clouds.</p>.<p>"This has been a long process. It's so moving. I was about to cry," said Ryo Okubo, a lawyer for Maezawa's space projects.</p>.<p>"I'm really excited but he's also my friend so I'm worried about him," a longtime friend of the billionaire, 44-year-old Hiroyuki Sugimoto, told AFP.</p>.<p>Among the revellers was a family-of-three who won spots at the launch from out of a million applicants. The brother and sister were holding hand-drawn banners with Maezawa's face inside a sunflower and a picture of a rocket.</p>.<p>The trio will spend 12 days on the station where the Japanese tourists will document their daily life aboard the ISS for Maezawa's popular YouTube channel.</p>.<p>The 46-year-old billionaire has set out 100 tasks to complete onboard, including hosting a badminton tournament.</p>.<p>The ISS is home to an international crew of seven people including two Russian cosmonauts and a Japanese astronaut.</p>.<p>Russia's Anton Shkaplerov welcomed the trio.</p>.<p>"We have already prepared dinner for you," he tweeted. "We are waiting for the hatches to open in a couple of hours!"</p>.<p>Maezawa also plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the moon operated by Musk's SpaceX.</p>.<p>He and his assistant are the first private Japanese citizens to visit space since journalist Toyohiro Akiyama travelled to the Mir station in 1990.</p>.<p>Russia has a history of shepherding self-funded tourists to space.</p>.<p>In partnership with US-based company Space Adventures, Roscosmos previously took seven tourists to the ISS since 2001 -- one of them twice.</p>.<p>The last was Canada's Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009, who was dubbed the first clown in space.</p>.<p>Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, praised Russia's return to the booming space tourism business.</p>.<p>"It's been 12 years. We've had to be very patient. We've had to be very creative. So, this is the culmination of a lot of effort from a lot of different people," he told AFP shortly after liftoff.</p>.<p>In October, Russia launched its first untrained cosmonauts into space since Laliberte's trip, delivering a Russian actress and director to the ISS where they filmed scenes for the first movie in orbit.</p>.<p>Moscow had stopped sending tourists to space after NASA retired its Space Shuttle in 2011, which left Russia with a monopoly on supplying the ISS.</p>.<p>NASA bought up all Soyuz launch seats for a reported $90 million per spot -- effectively ending tourist flights.</p>.<p>That changed last year when a SpaceX spacecraft successfully delivered its first astronauts to the ISS.</p>.<p>NASA began purchasing flights from SpaceX, stripping Russia of its monopoly and costing its cash-strapped space agency millions of dollars in revenue.</p>.<p>While the cost of tickets to space for tourists has not been disclosed, Space Adventures has indicated that they are in the range of $50-60 million.</p>.<p>Roscosmos plans to continue growing its space tourism business, already commissioning two Soyuz rockets for such trips.</p>.<p>"We will not give away this niche to the Americans. We are ready to fight for it," Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin said after the launch.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>