Russian, American and Canadian astronauts will blast off Monday for the first manned Soyuz mission since a frightening failed launch in October, with the three feeling confident despite the risks.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency will launch at 1131 GMT aboard a Soyuz from Baikonur in Kazakhstan for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station. It will be the first manned launch for the Soviet-era Soyuz since October 11, when a rocket carrying Russia's Aleksey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague failed just minutes after blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency landing.
