The TMA-21 capsule docked automatically at 2309 GMT Wednesday, the centre that is close to Moscow said.

"Soyuz TMA-21 'Gagarin' docked with the Russian MIM-2 module automatically at 3:09 am Moscow time (Wednesday at 2309 GMT). According to plan the cosmonauts will open the air lock and enter the ISS around 6:30 am (0230 GMT), it added.

The three astronauts blasted off for the ISS on Tuesday in a spaceship named after the first man in space Yuri Gagarin in honour of his historic flight 50 years ago.

Cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko are making their first space flight while US astronaut Ronald Garan is making his second mission, having already flown on the US shuttle Discovery in 2008.

The mission is a centrepiece of celebrations for the half century of manned spaceflight and there had been worries it could miss the anniversary after a technical problem forced a delay from the original March 30 lift-off date.

Russian state television said the crew carried a recording of the famous radio exchanges between Gagarin in his tiny capsule and chief Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolyov on the ground from half a century ago.

Also going to space was an icon presented by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church as well as a small toy dog presented by Samokutyaev's daughter.

Gagarin's 108-minute mission -- which ended with him parachuting down into a rural area of central Russia -- came at the height of the Cold War, but these days the spaceflight is promoted as a joint endeavour between the former foes.

Russia's Soyuz delivery system will later this year become the sole means for taking humans to the ISS when NASA takes its shuttle out of service, leaving the United States reliant on the more rudimentary Russian technology.

The United States is due to launch the shuttle Endeavour on April 29 and Atlantis is set for its final mission in June, marking the end of the US space shuttle programme after 30 years.

At the time of Gagarin's flight, even the location of the Baikonur cosmodrome was a tightly-guarded secret and the presence of Americans anywhere near would have been unthinkable.

In the pre-flight press conference at Baikonur, NASA astronaut Garan played up the emotions of international harmony by reciting -- in Russian -- verses of a poem by romantic Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov.

Garan has described his involvement in the mission as an "incredible honour", saying that from Gagarin's flight "humanity became a different species ... humanity was no longer bounded to the confines of the Earth".

Refusing to break with tradition in any way, the astronauts watched the classic Soviet "Eastern" movie "White Sun of the Desert," which has been ritual viewing ahead of Baikonur lift-offs since its release in 1969.

The three -- who will spend the next six months in space -- will join on board NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Europe's Paolo Nespoli and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev.

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