KOROLYOV, April 20. /TASS/. Washington continues space cooperation with Russia, US Ambassador to Russia John Tefft told TASS on Thursday.

"Despite political disagreements, which we are all aware of, we keep working hard to continue the cooperation," said Tefft, who visited the Flight Control Center in the town of Korolyov near Moscow to watch the launch of the Russian Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He also said that the two countries should continue to work together as they explored the future.

"It was even more impressive than I thought," the ambassador said commenting on his visit to the Flight Control Center. "I was recalling as I listened the countdown even in the sixties and seventies," he added. "There is a great history here, we should all - Russians and Americans - be proud of," Tefft said.

The Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft blasted off the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:13 Moscow time (07:13 GMT) on Thursday. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the International Space Station in six hours after the launch, while three previous flights were two days long as the Soyuz-MS spacecraft was undergoing tests. The crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Jack Fischer.