Soyuz launch kicks off series of launches and landings for space station crew rotation

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts will ride a Soyuz ferry ship to the International Space Station early Friday, the first step in a record crew rotation requiring two launches and two landings with four different spacecraft in just three weeks. 

Launch is scheduled for 3:42 a.m. EDT Friday (12:42 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launching comes just three days before the 60th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961, to become the first man in space. More than 570 men and women have made the trip since then, fueling competition and then cooperation between Russia and the United States that has culminated in the International Space Station.