Astronauts get go-ahead for Good Friday launch

[April 20, 2010]  BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- A NASA astronaut and her two Russian colleagues have received the go-ahead for a mission to the International Space Station.

Officials from Russia's federal space agency Thursday gave the approval required for California native Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko to blast off at 10:04 a.m. (0404 GMT) on Good Friday.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the astronauts will lift off at the Russian-leased Baikonur space center in southern Kazakhstan and fly to the orbiting science lab on Easter Sunday.

The trio is set to leave the space station in mid-September, just as the shuttle sets off on its last mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, Caldwell Dyson spoke of her sadness at seeing the end of the venerable U.S. spacecraft.

[Associated Press]

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