Posted: Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 7:50 AM ET (1250 GMT)
A Soyuz spacecraft with three new crew members for the International Space Station lifted off early Monday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:52 pm EST Sunday (2152 GMT Sunday, 3:52 am local time Monday) and placed the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft into orbit nine minutes later. The Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the ISS Tuesday at 5:54 pm EST (2254 GMT). Onboard the spacecraft are three new members of the ISS crew: Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. They will join the current two-member ISS crew, Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev.

Related Links:

•  CBS News/Spaceflight Now article
•  SPACE.com article
•  AP article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  NASA press release