2 astronauts, cosmonaut blast off to ISS

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan: A three-man space crew featuring American and Japanese rookie astronauts as well as an experienced Russian cosmonaut blasted off on Sunday for a six-month mission at the International Space Station (ISS). Scott Tingle of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency powered into the sky in a Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:21 pm (0721 GMT). NASA TV footage from inside the Soyuz capsule showed a toy poodle made by Shkaplerov´s cousin and modelled on the cosmonaut´s family dog floating around the capsule as the spacecraft entered zero gravity. Roscosmos confirmed the Soyuz crew had launched “successfully” in a Sunday statement on the space agency´s website. While most flights to the ISS now take around six hours, the trio are taking the more circuitous two-day route due to the lab´s position in space at the time of the launch.