BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- The world's second space tourist lifted off Thursday on a Russian rocket from the Baikonur launchpad in Central Asia, heading for the International Space Station.
The Soyuz-U rocket blasted off at 2:27 a.m. EDT (0627 GMT) carrying Mark Shuttleworth, a 28-year-old South African Internet magnate, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko and Italian Air Force pilot Roberto Vittori on a 10-day mission.
The launch went smoothly and as scheduled, and the rocket reached orbit about eight minutes later, officials at mission control outside Moscow announced immediately after liftoff.
The 161-foot (49-meter) Soyuz-U booster delivered the Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft into an orbit that will lead to a docking with the frontier outpost Saturday at 3:57 a.m. EDT (0757 GMT). The docking will be carried live on NASA TV.
Shuttleworth paid $20 million for the journey, which began from the same cosmodrome in now-independent Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union inaugurated the space race, sending up the world's first satellite in 1957 and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, four years later.
The money will be paid in installments that will be complete only after the team returns to Earth on May 5.
Shuttleworth admitted to feeling a bit jittery about his voyage into orbit, a trip that he's been dreaming about since childhood. "I have some nervousness and some anxiety _ I am not a professional astronaut,'' Shuttleworth said on the eve of the launch.
This team's mission, named "Marco Polo,'' is to drop off a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to the space station. A Soyuz is kept docked as a lifeboat and replaced every six months.
"We are ready. We are sure of ourselves and our hardware,'' flight commander Gidzenko, the only one on the crew with space experience, told journalists Wednesday.
Shuttleworth is following in the footsteps of American businessman Dennis Tito, who became the first space tourist last year when he went to the international station on a Russian rocket. But Shuttleworth is determined that the world consider him more than just a passenger.
| Soyuz 4 to ISS |
| For complete launch to landing coverage and the most up-to-date news about this mission, click here. |
He has spent eight months in grueling training with the other cosmonauts, learned Russian so he can communicate with mission control outside Moscow and attended one week's worth of lessons at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Shuttleworth also received lessons from a South African scientist who needs his help to conduct experiments on how sheep and mice stem cells react in zero-gravity.
Stem cells are the body's master repair cells, and they can develop into a wide variety of different cell and tissue types that researchers are working to develop as treatments for various diseases.
Shuttleworth wore a patch Wednesday on his blue spacesuit bearing the red ribbon symbolizing the fight against AIDS, saying that he hoped some of the experiments will in "some small way'' help in the battle.
Struggling to keep alive their once world-leading space program, the Russians began exploring alternative sources of funding after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In addition to offering seats to paying riders, the Russians have courted Western companies eager for a chance to work in the world's oldest space facility.
"The Russians were near starving. Five or 10 years ago it looked like they were all going to disappear, but now Western money has come in and things are looking brighter,'' said James Oberg, a U.S. expert on the Russian space program.
Shuttleworth said he is grateful for the chance the Russians offered him.
"I believe we are stretching the boundaries of the cosmos and in the next few years, I believe we will make the cosmos even more accessible,'' he said.
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