Russia launches manned craft to space station

MOSCOW, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia successfully launched a Soyuz MS-07 spaceship with three astronauts on board from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a statement.

The spaceship was propelled by a Soyuz-FG rocket, which blasted off at 10:21 Moscow time (0721 GMT) from "Gagarin's Start" launching pad, and it is planned to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) at around 11:43 Moscow time (0843 GMT) Tuesday.

The Soyuz MS-07 capsule carries Russian astronaut Anton Shkaplerov and his U.S. colleague Scott Tingle and Japanese colleague Norishige Kanai.

Russian spaceships are currently the main vehicle for flights to the ISS.