MOSCOW — An American, a Canadian and a Russian blasted into orbit on Monday in the first launch of a piloted Russian Soyuz rocket since a dramatic failure in October, when a booster failed to separate smoothly and the crew plummeted to Earth in an emergency return.

As Soyuz rockets are now the only means for astronauts to reach the International Space Station, Monday’s launch was closely watched. Had the rocket not reached orbit, the station might have been left unoccupied for a time.

But the rocket lifted off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on a tongue of flame and flew into space without a hitch, live video of the launch showed.