MOSCOW, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) — A Russian spaceship carrying three astronauts blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan early Monday, local media reported.

Russian television showed that a Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-17 spaceship lifted off at 00:52 Moscow time (2152 GMT Sunday) from the southern Kazakh steppe.

The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) at 01:54 Moscow time (2254 GMT) on Dec. 23 after two days of flight.

The 22nd ISS mission, consisting of Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA’s Timothy Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will join Maxim Surayev and Jeffrey Williams already working at the space station.

During their 161 days in space, the crew members will complete several docking tasks, including those of three Russian freighters and two U.S. space shuttles, as well as conducting more than 40 scientific experiments and one space walk.

Meanwhile a Russian MIM-1 small research module called “Rassvet ” (Dawn), which will be sent to the ISS by a U.S. space shuttle in May, 2010, is also set to be docked to the ISS during the mission.

The 7.9-ton “Rassvet” module will be used to conduct a series of scientific experiments, especially those of biotechnology and material science. It can also be used to deposit experiment equipment.

It was the first-ever launch of a Soyuz spaceship on a winter night, bringing festive mood of Christmas cheer to the ISS that orbits 350 km above Earth.

Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, told reporters earlier that due to increased times of manned launches and consideration on fuel efficiency, the launch was scheduled for a late winter night.

Usually Russia sends manned spacecraft to the ISS in other three seasons of the year, he said.