Soyuz TMA-9 launch - A rocket is being launched into the sky

JSC2006-E-40672 (18 Sept. 2006) --- The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Sept. 18, 2006 carrying a new crew to the International Space Station. The Soyuz lifted off at 10:09 a.m. Baikonur time with astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Expedition 14 commander and NASA space station science officer; cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, Soyuz commander and flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari, who will spend nine days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.