The Soyuz rocket lifts off in heavy fog at Baikonur Cosmodrome. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off early today from Kazakhstan and set off after the international space station for a docking Thursday to establish what NASA hopes will be a permanent foothold in space.

With U.S. and Russian VIPs, reporters, astronauts and cosmonauts looking on, Soyuz commander Yuri Gidzenko, flight engineer Sergei Krikalev and space station commander William Shepherd rocketed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:53 a.m. EST.

It was the 399th launch from Baikonur's "site 254," including the historic flight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space. It was only the second Soyuz launch to include an American crew member.

Shepherd and company climbed away through a cold, somewhat foggy sky and quickly disappeared from view.

Live television shots beamed down from inside the Soyuz showed Shepherd grinning, waving at the camera and pumping his fist in the air as the rocket thundered toward orbit.

Eight minutes and 50 seconds after liftoff, the Soyuz slipped into orbit, prompting all three crew members to briefly clasp hands in a congratulatory handshake.

ISS commander Bill Shepherd during launch. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

The spacecraft's solar arrays and communications antennas deployed a few moments later as the crew set about checking critical systems and rigging the ship for orbital flight.

If all goes well, Gidzenko will oversee an automated docking with the 81-ton international space station at 4:24 a.m. Thursday.

Five hours later, after checking the integrity of critical seals, hatches between the two vehicles will be opened and the crew will float into the Zvezda command module to begin the station's permanent occupation.

The launching marked a long-awaited - and long-delayed - milestone in the history of the international space station, a project first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in his 1984 State of the Union address.

What was initially billed as an $8 billion outpost that would be open for business by 1992 has grown into a $60 billion project that will not be complete until April 2006.

For the next 10 to 15 years, rotating crews of astronaut researchers will work aboard the space station, carrying out medical research, materials science experiments, biological studies, earth observation and more.

"It's been a struggle," said NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. "There are so many people who felt maybe we couldn't do it. But it's happening. It's here. We're going to be in space forever with people, first circling this globe, then we're going on to Mars, back to the moon and with bases on asteroids."

Robert Cabana, a veteran shuttle commander who serves as director of international operations for the space station program, said today's launching marked a historic sea change for NASA.

"Crew on orbit! it doesn't get any better than this," he said. "It's been a long time coming, but this is it! We're starting off on a permanent human presence in space, we're bringing the space station to life.

"It opens up a whole new world to us, having a permanent presence up there. This is a stepping stone to the future. ... Next year at this time, we're going to have an awesome space station up there. I mean, it's great right now. But having a crew on board, this is the beginning of a real space station."

NASA space station flight director Rick Labrode called today's launch the most significant flight since the dawn of the space age. Given the excitement of the moment, he can perhaps be forgiven for ignoring the Apollo moon landings.

"Today is probably the most significant event in manned spaceflight since the launch of Yuri Gagarin nearly 40 years ago," he said. "Today will mark the last day - barring any unforeseen circumstances - that we will not have a human presence in space.

"It's very satisfying to see that this joint partnership between the U.S. and Russia has allowed us to take this first step toward really expanding our horizons and hopefully, improving the quality of life on Earth for all of mankind."

Expedition One departs for the launch pad. Photo: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now

Shepherd and his crewmates were escorted to the launch pad by two Russian flight surgeons and one American doctor. A throng of VIPs, photographers and launch pad personnel greeted the spacemen when they reached site 254.

Before heading for the pad, George Abbey, director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told Shepherd "We're looking forward to a great flight today. May you have a fair wind and a following sea. We know you'll do well. Good luck."

Once at the pad, all three crew men posed on the steps leading to the launch pad elevator, giving well wishers a thumbs up. Shepherd yelled out: "Let's go do it! Get those shuttles ready!"

Shepherd and his crewmates made the trip to orbit seated three abreast in the Soyuz spacecraft's central re-entry module with Krikalev in the left seat, Soyuz pilot Gidzenko in the center seat and Shepherd strapped into the module's right-side seat.

During their first orbit, the space fliers moved into the upper orbital module to deploy the ship's docking probe and to check out its motion control system, radar and other critical systems.

Rocket firings during the next two orbits were designed to put the spacecraft on course for a linkup with the space station in two days. The fliers planned to begin an eight-and-a-half-hour sleep period around 10 a.m.

The crew will be awakened at 7:30 p.m. today for a full day of rendezvous rocket firings and equipment checkout.

An artist's concept of the Soyuz nearing the international space station. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

Rendezvous preparations will begin in earnest with crew wakeup at 7 p.m. Wednesday and the start of the automated approach phase at 1:55 a.m. Thursday. At that point, the Soyuz will be about 800 kilometers from the space station.

Shortly thereafter, the space station will re-orient itself as required for docking, flying broadside to its direction of travel with the U.S. Unity module facing north and the Zvezda command module facing south.

The Soyuz will fly a fully automated approach to a point about 200 meters from the station. A fly-around then will be initiated just before 4 a.m. Thursday to move the Soyuz into its final docking position.

After stationkeeping for about nine minutes for a final Soyuz health check, the final approach will be initiated around 4:15 a.m. Docking is scheduled for 4:24:39 a.m.

The Expedition One crew will video ingress to the station and downlink it to Earth around 7:27 a.m.

"I always think about this as a step forward that's going to benefit not only us but our grandchildren and their grandchildren for years to come," said Joseph Rothenberg, NASA's associate administrator for spaceflight.

"It's not only the humans in space, but it's the fact that we're doing this as a collaboration with people who were formally on different sides of the fence in terms of space and in terms of politics. And today we're all working together. And our grandchildren are going to benefit from that."