US and Russian crews rocket off to space station
Two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan for a five-month mission to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft carrying the crew of crew Acaba and Vande Hei of the the US, and Misurkin of Russia blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
A Soyuz space capsule with two Americans and a Russian aboard blasted off for the International Space Station from Russia's manned launch facility in Kazakhstan.
The capsule was launched at 3:17 am on Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday) and entered orbit nine minutes later.
The crew docked with the International Space Station, which orbits about 400 km above Earth, at 0559 GMT.
Joe Acaba of NASA is making his third trip into space and Russian Alexander Misurkin his second.
It's the first voyage for American Mark Vande Hei. All three are to stay on the space station for about five and a half months.
They will join Russia's Sergey Ryazanskiy, American Randy Bresnik and Italy's Paolo Nespoli, who have been aboard the station since late July.
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