spacetoday.net: Soyuz sends new crew to the ISS

Posted: Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 5:38 PM ET (2138 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-17M launch (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft with three people on board docked with the International Space Station Wednesday night, nearly six hours after its launch from Kazakhstan. A Soyuz rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft lifted off at 5:02 pm EDT (2102 GMT) Wednesday, placing the spacecraft into orbit. The Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Rassvet module of the ISS at 10:45 pm EDT (0245 GMT Thursday) after a four-orbit trip. The Soyuz brought to the station Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. They join the three people currently on the ISS, including year-long mission participants Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko. The launch was pushed back from late May after the April failure of a Progress cargo spacecraft.