FLORIDA TODAY: Breaking News: "BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — The Russian space program strayed slightly from its superstition-laden pre-launch ritual today, using a new, longer railroad route to take a rocket to a launch pad in the bleak, dusty steppe of the Baikonur cosmodrome.

"Change comes hard to Baikonur—where the space age began with Sputnik’s launch and Yuri Gagarin pioneered manned space flight—and some traditions held strong during preparations for Saturday’s launch of a three-man, multinational crew toward the International Space Station."