MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. A Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-29 manned spacecraft and three crewmembers of the 75th long-term expedition has lifted off from the Baikonur spaceport towards the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a live broadcast.

In about nine minutes after the lift-of, the Soyuz MS-29 manned spacecraft separated from the upper stage of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket and entered the designated orbit, Roscosmos announced.

The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft will deliver the crew of the 75th long-term space expedition to the orbital outpost. The crew comprises Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov (the crew and ISS-75 mission commander) and Anna Kikina (the first female reporter of TASS news agency in orbit) and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. The flight will be the second for Dubrov and Kikina in their space career and the first for astronaut Melon.

The space mission is expected to last 261 days.

The Soyuz MS-29 manned spacecraft will approach the orbital outpost using an ultra-short two-orbit scheme and is set to dock to the Prichal module of the ISS Russian segment at about 8:56 p.m. Moscow time (5:56 p.m. GMT).

The crew will also deliver scientific equipment to the orbital outpost to carry out mostly biomedical and biotechnological researches. The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft crew is set to conduct about 40 space experiments and targeted researches, including two new Gazoanalizator-FS and Teledroid investigations.