Soyuz blasts off with three bound for space station

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft takes off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three crew members bound for the International Space Station. NASA TV

Last Updated Sep 25, 2014 5:30 PM EDT

An experienced Russian cosmonaut, a NASA shuttle veteran and the first female cosmonaut to be assigned to the International Space Station blasted off Thursday aboard a Soyuz ferry craft, kicking off a six-hour flight to the orbiting lab complex. One of two solar arrays failed to initially deploy, but officials said the spacecraft had more than enough power for the planned four-orbit rendezvous.

With Soyuz TMA-14M commander Alexander Samokutyaev at the controls, flanked on the left by board engineer Elena Serova and on the right by Barry "Butch" Wilmore, the Soyuz rocket thundered to life at 4:25 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 2:25 a.m. Friday local time), lighting up the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as it climbed away.

Launching directly into the plane of the space station's orbit, the iconic Russian rocket soared away through a cloudy, deep overnight sky, putting on a dramatic show for family members, spaceport workers and agency managers as it accelerated toward space through low clouds.

The ascent went smoothly and all three crew members appeared relaxed in live video downlinked from the Soyuz. Eight minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft separated from the rocket's upper stage into an orbit with a low point of 118 miles and a high point of around 143 miles, trailing the space station by about 2,311 miles.

But only one of the spacecraft's two solar panels initially deployed as planned.

"There's a problem with the port array," said a NASA official at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It's no mission impact as long as they stay on a four-orbit rendezvous. They have plenty of battery power for rendezvous and docking."

He said engineers were optimistic the panel would "shake" free at some point with rendezvous rocket firings and with orbital temperature swings.

"It looked like a good ride, we got to see about the first 30 seconds then we lost the Soyuz behind the Dragon (cargo ship)," astronaut Reid Wiseman radioed from the space station. "So we were happy to be watching NASA TV and see these guys safely in orbit. We'll have dinner waiting for them."

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Soyuz blasts off with three bound for space station