MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The future Russian orbital station will turn a new page in the history of manned space exploration because it will host new experiments, said Dmitry Bakanov, Roscosmos head and chairman of the United Russia party's council for innovative and technological development.

"It is a completely new chapter, a fundamentally new image of a more modern near-Earth station that will be as automated as it can only be. It will host completely new, additional experiments," he said during a Roscosmos broadcast following the launch of a rocket carrying the new ISS crew.

He pointed to the excitement after the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-29 manned spacecraft from the Baikonur space centre.

"When the docking takes place and our guys are already on the station, we will consider the mission accomplished and can relax," he said.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying the crew of the 75th long-term expedition to the ISS from the Baikonur space centre took place at 5:48 p.m. Moscow time (2:48 p.m. GMT). The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the Pritchal module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 8:56 p.m. Moscow time (5:56 GMT).

The spacecraft is carrying commander Pyotr Dubrov, TASS’ first female special correspondent Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. The expected duration of the mission is 261 days.