It's a launch — the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, carrying Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer Yury V. Lonchakov and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, occurred Sunday, October 12, 2008, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. While we didn't get to watch it live like the SpaceX launch, the important thing is that all went well.

The three crew members are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on October 14. Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott will return to Earth October 24, 2008, with two of the Expedition 17 crew currently aboard the International Space Station.