Posted: Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 6:25 PM ET (2325 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket carrying a spacecraft with three International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers on board lifted off on schedule on Wednesday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 am EST (1212 GMT, 6:12 pm local time) Wednesday and placed the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft into orbit. On board the spacecraft are three new members of the ISS crew: NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. They will join three people currently on the station. Hadfield will take command of the station later in his five-month stay, becoming the first Canadian to do so. The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 9:12 am EST (1412 GMT) Friday.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Florida Today article
•  Ottawa Citizen article
•  AP article
•  NASA press release