MOSCOW, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Russian spaceship with two astronauts and one space tourist aboard docked with the International Space Station (ISS), the Mission Control outside Moscow said on Friday.

    The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft docked with the ISS at 12:35 a.m. Moscow Time (0835 GMT) in automatic regime, Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the Mission Control, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

    The astronauts and the space tourist are expected to open the hatch and enter the ISS at around 03:00 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT).

    The space capsule, with the 21st ISS crew Russian and U.S. astronauts Maxim Surayev and Jeffrey Williams on board, blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. 

    Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of the world-renowned acrobatic group Cirque du Soleil, joined the mission as world's seventh space tourist. 

    It is reported that Laliberte has spent around 50 million U.S. dollars for the trip, 15 million dollars more than his predecessor.

    The 21st ISS crew will complete several tasks at the station in six months, including the unloading of three Russian Progress space freighters and a spacewalk to install a Russian MIM-2 scientific module. 

    They will also conduct some 50 scientific experiments and work with crews of three U.S. space shuttles. 

    Laliberte will spend 12 days and nights at the space station, before returning to earth together with the 19th mission, Russian and U.S. astronauts Gennady Padalka and Michael Barratt, who have been at the orbital station since March, on board the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft.