Russian Soyuz spacecraft takes Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor to skies

The TMA-11 rocket, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia's first astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopaedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur and a Russian cosmonaut lifted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Staff at the mission control shook each others' hands as soon as the mission's launch was successfully conducted. Live pictures from aboard the rocket showed the crew sitting calmly and taking the machine to outer space.