Three-person crew blasts off for ISS in Russian capsule: space agencies

A NASA TV commentator said everything was normal

ALMATY (AFP) - Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off to the International Space Station Wednesday aboard a Russian capsule, in the first such launch since SpaceX’s game-changing debut manned flight from US soil.

Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and NASA’s Kathleen Rubins launched from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0545 GMT on Wednesday, according to footage broadcast by the two space agencies.

A NASA TV commentator said everything was normal, citing communications between Russian mission control and the crew, while Roscosmos said the capsule had successfully gone into orbit.