New space station crew sees trip as shuttle tribute

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan--U.S. astronaut Edward Lu planned to don abadge from the Columbia mission when he blasted off today in aRussian rocket, the first manned launch since the disaster.

Lu said the mission to the international space station is not onlyfilling the gap left by suspended shuttle flights--it's payingtribute to Columbia's seven astronauts.

The shuttle disintegrated over Texas in February.

"We are doing what I think they would have wanted and what theirfamilies would have wanted us to do--continue the process of flyinginto space," Lu said Friday.

Russian and U.S. experts have scrambled to get Expedition 7 readyin record time. To many the mission …