MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station blasted off Saturday, two days after its launch was aborted at the last minute. The spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus launched smoothly from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Borisov, said the launch abort was triggered by a voltage drop in a power source. The space capsule atop the rocket separated and went into orbit eight minutes after the launch and began a two-day, 34-orbit trip to the space station. Russia has continued to rely on modified versions of Soviet-designed rockets for commercial satellites, as well as crews and cargo to the space station.

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Persons: Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky, Marina Vasilevskaya, Yuri Borisov, Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai, Alexander Grebenkin, O'Hara Organizations: MOSCOW, Russian Soyuz, International Space, NASA Locations: Russian, Belarus, Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine