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A three-man space crew featuring American and Japanese rookie astronauts as well as an experienced Russian cosmonaut blasted off for a six-month mission at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday.
Scott Tingle of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency powered into the sky in a Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:21 p.m. (0721 GMT), according to footage aired by the Russian space agency.
While most flights to the ISS now take around six hours, the trio are taking the more circuitous two-day route due to the lab's position in space at the time of the launch.
On board the Soyuz MS-07 are NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Docking is expected on Tuesday before 0900 GMT.
Both Tingle, 52, and Kanai, 40, are first-time flyers but flight commander Shkaplerov, 43, is an experienced hand.
The former Russian military pilot has spent exactly a year in space over the course of two missions and will mark his birthday in orbit for the third time in February next year.
Voting from space
Shkaplerov told journalists at a pre-flight press conference on Saturday that he intends to vote from space in Russia's March presidential election.
"We (cosmonauts), like all conscientious citizens of Russia, participate in the presidential elections," he said.
Kanai is the youngest astronaut in the history of the Japanese space agency, and the last of a trio of Japanese astronauts who were certified for travel to the ISS back in 2011.
US Navy captain Tingle is a graduate of Purdue University in Indiana, which also counts space legend Neil Armstrong among its alumni.
ISS crew members Norishige Kanai of Japan (L), Anton Shkaplerov of Russia (C) and Scott Tingle of the US
20 years in orbit
The space travelers will join Russia's Alexander Misurkin and NASA pair Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba who are
currently aboard the ISS.
Tuesday's docking will mark a prompt crew rotation after Sergei Ryazansky of Roscosmos, NASA's Randy Bresnik and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli returned to earth on Thursday.
NASA stopped its own manned launches to the ISS in 2011 but recently moved to increase the crew complement on the US section of the ISS to four as the Russians cut theirs to two in a cost-saving measure announced last year.
The ISS laboratory, a rare example of American and Russian cooperation, has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometers per hour since 1998.
(AFP)
