WATCH ABOVE: A Russian capsule carried three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy to the International Space Station.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan – A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, the U.S. and Italy has docked with the International Space Station.
The Russian capsule blasted off before dawn from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The flight to the space station took just six hours.
Russian Anton Shkaplerov, NASA’s Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy join three others already aboard the orbiting station.
The others include Russian Elena Serova, and Cristoforetti’s arrival made it the second time in the station’s 16-year history that two women have been aboard on long-term missions.
The new arrivals will remain aboard the station until mid-May, while the current crew (NASA’s Barry Wilmore, Russian Alexander Samokutyaev and Serova) will return to Earth in early March.
Since the retirement of the U-S space shuttle fleet in 2011, Russian Soyuz spacecraft have served as the only means to ferry crew to and from the space station.
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