A few weeks ago one of our astronauts lifted off on a Russian Soyuz rocket in Kazakhstan, along with two other “astronauts” (actually, the term “astronaut” was coined to identify space-persons from the United States – Russians are called “Cosmonauts”. I don’t know what the Egyptians are called – possibly Pharaoh-nauts). They went for an extended stay of months aboard the International Space Station.
The launch took place in Russia instead of Florida because of the eminent termination of the United States Space Shuttle program (there are only two more planned Shuttle launches, tentatively scheduled for February 3rd and April 1st).