MOSCOW (AP) — A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off Wednesday for an express trip to the International Space Station.
The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off at 1623 GMT from Russia’s manned space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the space station three hours later, in contrast to some missions that last for days.
The mission commander is Alexei Ovchinin, with Russian compatriot Ivan Vagner and American Donald Pettit in the crew.