A Russian spacecraft blasted off Thursday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan carrying a cosmonaut, astronaut and an American space tourist.

The Soyuz TMA-14's Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, Michael Barrat of the U.S. space agency NASA, and American billionaire Charles Simonyi will go to the International Space Station (ISS) and join its three crew on March 28, the scheduled arrival of the Soyuz spacecraft.

Padalka and Barrat will replace U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov. The relievers will stay at the ISS for six months.

Simonyi, 60, will stay at the space station for 10 days and return to Earth with Fincke and Lonchakov on April 7. The Hungarian-born businessman paid $35 million for his second trip to the ISS.

In 2007, he flew to the ISS paying $25 million for the trip.