A Soyuz spacecraft carrying astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday morning nearly six hours after liftoff from Kazakhstan.
Their rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:02 a.m. Japan time and separated from the launch vehicle on schedule nine minutes later. It then reached the ISS, at an altitude of 400 km, at 11:45 a.m.
The crew comprised Soyuz commander Oleg Kononenko, 51, of Russia, flight engineer Kimiya Yui, 45, of Japan, and flight engineer Kjell Lindgren, 42, of the United States.