Russia launches manned spacecraft

     BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia launched a spacecraft with three astronauts on board from the Kazakh Baikonur space center early on Tuesday, Xinhua correspondents（通讯记者） reported from the site.

    The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft atop a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket blasted off at 02:18 a.m. Moscow time (2218 GMT April 4), sending to the International Space Station (ISS) Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko and U.S. astronaut Ronald Garn.

    The Soyuz TMA-21, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was scheduled to dock with the ISS at 03:18 a.m. Moscow time (2318 GMT April 6) on Thursday.

    According to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the three new crew members are expected to spend 170 days in the ISS. During the period, they will receive two U.S. space shuttles and three Russian Progress cargo¹ ships, conduct a spacewalk and carry out over 40 experiments.

    The launch is dedicated² to the 50th anniversary of the first flight into space in 1961 carried out by Gagarin.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

2 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。