The Russian Soyuz TMA-22 space ship attached on the Soyuz-FG rocket booster is seen prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, Pool)

MOSCOW
(AP) — A Russian spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians
blasted off Monday from the snow-covered Kazakh steppes in a faultless
launch that eased anxiety about the future of U.S. and Russian space
programs.

The
Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14 a.m. (0414 GMT) from the
Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank
and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the
International Space Station.

The
launch had been delayed for two months due to the crash of an unmannned
Progress cargo ship in August. The failed launch raised doubts about
future missions to the station, because the rocket that crashed used the
same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.

NASA
had warned that the space outpost would need to be abandoned
temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew could
not be launched before the last of the station’s six residents flew back
to Earth in mid-November.

Russian
space officials tracked down the Progress launch failure to an
“accidental” manufacturing flaw and recalled all Soyuz rockets from
space launch pads for a thorough examination. The successful launch of a
Progress ship last month cleared the way for the crew to be sent off.

The
crew said they trusted the Soyuz, a workhorse of the Soviet and then
Russian space program for more than 40 years. “We have no black thoughts
and full confidence in our technology,” Shkaplerov told journalists
before the launch.

The
new crew are to arrive just in time to keep the orbiting station
manned. The three crew members currently on board the station are set to
return to Earth on Nov. 21. Another launch next month is to take the
station back to its normal six-person crew mode.

The
39-year-old Shkaplerov and 42-year-old Ivanishin are making their first
flights into space. Burbank, 50, who will take over command of the
space station, is a veteran of 12-day shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006.
The three men are to remain aboard the space station until March.

Russian
Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said the agency was actively
recruiting women to become cosmonauts. Only one woman is now in training
and Popovkin told journalists at Baikonur that he was determined to
send her into orbit, Russian news agencies reported.

Member of the next expedition to the International Space Station Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, second left, escorted by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, right, and assistants, walks to the rocket prior to the launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with the Soyuz TMA-22 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, pool)

Even
in the case of an engine failure like the one that led to the Progress
crash in August, a Soyuz crew would be rescued by an emergency escape
system. But any further launch trouble would have prompted NASA to
rethink the space station program, which now relies exclusively on
Russian spacecraft after the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet
in July.

The
Progress crash was one in a string of spectacular launch failures that
raised concerns about the state of Russia’s space industries. Last
December, Russia lost three navigation satellites when a rocket carrying
them failed to reach orbit. A military satellite was lost in February,
and the launch of the Express-AM4, described by officials as Russia’s
most powerful telecommunications satellite, went awry in August.

In
the latest failure, an unmanned probe intended to collect ground
samples on Phobos, a moon of Mars, in the most ambitious Russian
interplanetary mission since the Soviet era, suffered an equipment
failure shortly after Wednesday’s launch and got stuck in Earth orbit.

Efforts to contact the craft have been unsuccessful, but Popovkin said there was still time to prevent it from crashing down.

“The
prognosis shows that it will fly through January, and we have until the
first days of December (to establish control) so it can fulfill its
intended function,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the space chief
as saying.

Popovkin
said engineers were making the necessary adjustments to contact the
probe as it flies about 200 km (120 miles) above the Earth. “Therefore I
can say that there is still a chance,” he was quoted as saying.

Russian
space officials have blamed the botched launches on obsolete equipment
and an aging workforce. The space agency said it will establish its own
quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over
production quality.

Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Associated Press