The world's third space tourist, US enterpreneur and scientist Gregory Olsen, has blasted off from Earth in a space rocket bound for the International Space Station.
The Russian Soyuz rocket took off from the Baikonur space centre Kazakhstan at 4.54am Irish time.
Mr Olsen will spend a week in space conducting experiments with US commander William McArthur and Russian Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, who are travelling to the ISS to take over from another two-man crew.
The space tourist will then return to Earth with the outgoing two-man crew at the end of his trip, reported to have cost him $20 million.
Russia is currently responsible for ferrying people and supplies to the $100 billion station after NASA grounded its shuttle fleet in July, having failed to fix a technical problem that killed seven astronauts on board the Columbia shuttle in 2003.
