Russian spacecraft blasted off

A Russian spacecraft blasted off to the International Space Station on Wednesday, carrying Denmark's first man in space, Andreas Mogensen, dpa reported. The milestone space launch was also the 500th from the pad at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome that sent the first man into space,Yury Gagarin, in 1961, according to a statement by Russian space agency Roscosmos.The Soyuz spacecraft, launched with a Russian-designed carrier rocket of the same name, is also carrying Kazakh and Russian cosmonauts Aidyn Aimbetov and Sergei Volkov. The craft is scheduled to reach the space station on Friday around 0740 GMT, Roscosmos said.