Three astronauts today blasted off for the International Space Station in a spaceship named after the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.
The mission - a centrepiece of celebrations for the half century of manned spaceflight - is in honour of Gagarin's historic 1961 flight.
The crew of two Russians and one American left on a Soyuz rocket from the main launch pad at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Yuri Gagarin departed the same location when he went on his historic space mission on 12 April, 1961. His flight 50 years ago gave the Soviet Union its greatest Cold War victory over the United States.
The Soyuz capsule is named after and even inscribed with the name of the famous cosmonaut.
'The flight is normal,' mission control told the crew, who waved and gave the thumbs-up sign to a camera relaying images from the capsule back to earth.
Cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko are making their first space flight, while US astronaut Ronald Garan is making his second mission, having already flown on US shuttle Discovery in 2008.
'We are feeling good,' said the voice of one of the crew, apparently flight commander Samokutyaev. 'I wish you success and a good flight,' said the head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Perminov.
The Soyuz capsule successfully went into Earth orbit and is due to dock with the ISS at 2318GMT Wednesday, after a two-day journey.
There had been worries the mission could miss the 12 April anniversary after a technical problem forced a delay from the original 30 March lift-off date.
The crew took with them a recording of the famous radio exchanges between Gagarin in his tiny capsule and chief Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolyov on the ground from 1961, Russian state television said.
In a sign of the importance of the mission, air security is being ensured by eight planes and 12 helicopters around eastern Russian and Kazakhstan, federal aviation agency Rosaviatsia said in a statement.
Gagarin's 108-minute mission ended with him parachuting down into a rural area of central Russia.
The event came at the height of the Cold War, but these days the spaceflight is promoted as a joint endeavour between the former foes.
