The Soyuz rocket that is to take the first female tourist into space was raised into position on its launch pad Saturday. The Russian rocket was first pulled by diesel train from its hangar, a journey of eight kilometres (five miles) that lasted two hours, escorted by a guard of two Russian policemen and a police dog.
The rocket is due to blast off at 10:08 am (0408 GMT) Monday carrying space tourist Anousheh Ansari, an American of Iranian origin, and professional astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria of the United States and Mikhail Tyurin of Russia. Prior to its launch, the rocket is to be filled Sunday with 270 tonnes of fuel — a mix of oxygen, kerosene and hydrogen peroxide.
The rocket will head for the International Space Station (ISS), where Ansari will spend eight days and carry out experiments for the European Space Agency, before she returns to Earth on September 28 with two current occupants, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams.
Russian air and naval forces will be on patrol near the rocket's launch path over Kazakhstan, Siberia and the Sea of Japan in case of mishap.
The Soyuz rockets became the main workhorses taking people to the ISS after the grounding of the US space shuttle fleet in 2003, an interruption that ended with the successful launch of the shuttle Atlantis last weekend.
Russia rents the Baikonur launch site in the Kazakh steppe from Kazakh authorities.
Source: Agence France-Presse
