The spacecraft took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 0538 GMT Saturday and was successfully placed into orbit eight minutes later, Russian space control officials here said.

The Soyuz TMA-3 craft, manned by American Michael Foale, Russian Alexander Kaleri and Spaniard Pedro Duque, is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station (ISS) two days later, at 0711 GMT on Monday.

The take-off came three days after the successful launch of the first manned spaceship by China, propelling it into the elite club of countries with manned space programmes alongside Russia and the United States.

"The vessel was placed into orbit without problems which again proves the safety and constancy of Russian space technology," Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for the Russian space agency told reporters.

"Despite financial difficulties the space sector continues to fulfill its objectives and to give our partners in the ISS the possibility of flying to the station," he added.

The mission is seen as a boost for the European space program, as it is the first space flight for a European astronaut to the ISS since the disaster of the American space shuttle Columbia on February 1.

Russia has been the only country servicing the ISS since the United States grounded its shuttle program following the breakup in February of its Columbia spacecraft as it returned to earth from the station.

Foale and Kaleri, members of the eighth permanent ISS mission, are replacing another US-Russian crew, Edward Lu and Yuri Malenchenko, who have been on the ISS for six months. They will stay onboard the space station until April 2004.

Duque had been scheduled to fly to the ISS in April for an eight-day stay to carry out a range of scientific experiments, but he was bumped off the Russian flight after it was commandeered to take up a replacement crew for the

One of the objectives of the eighth permanent mission is to prepare the station for the arrival of a European supply spaceship (Automated Transfer Vehicle) whose first flight to the ISS is scheduled for September 2004.

Duque, whose 10-day mission is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, is to carry out 24 experiments in the fields of life and physical sciences, Earth observation, education and technology.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is one of the main partners along with Russia and the United States in the 16-nation ISS project.

A member of ESAs astronaut corps since 1992, Duque becomes the sixth European, and first Spaniard, to visit and work on the International Space Station. He flew once before to space on a US shuttle in 1998.

Duque will land on October 28 on a Soyuz capsule with Malenchenko and Lu in Kazakhstan.

SPACE.WIRE