A Russian spaceship with three astronauts on board was launched from the Kazakh Baikonur space center on Wednesday night, local TV footage showed.

The Soyuz TMA-20 atop a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket blasted off at 10:09 p.m. Moscow time (1909 GMT), sending to the International Space Station (ISS) Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA female astronaut Catherine Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

They all reported good health and normal status of the space trip.

The Soyuz manned spacecraft was scheduled to dock with the ISS at 11:12 p.m. Moscow time (2012 GMT) on Friday.

The three astronauts were expected to stay at the space outpost for nearly six months, joining the existing crew of American Scott Kelly and two Russians, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, who have been working at the ISS since October.

During their mission the ISS crew would receive a special spaceship named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 2011, for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight.

They would also receive and undock some cargo spaceships and manned spacecraft, in addition to conducting three spacewalks.

On Tuesday, the head of Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, congratulated Coleman on her 50th birthday and presented her with a scaled model of Soyuz TMA as a gift.

Coleman said she would bring a flute to the space outpost for the purpose of lightening up. She also took a small plush tiger along with her in the trip, while Italian Nespoli would orbit some toys from his little daughter.

The TMA-20 launch went through an unexpected episode, as media reported in early October that the Soyuz re-entry module might have been damaged during transportation to the Kazakh Baikonur space center.

A backup spacecraft was then delivered to the space center.

After the U.S. space shuttles stop operation in 2011, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft would shoulder the major responsibility of the ISS personnel exchange.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet