Soyuz Rocket blasts off with three Crew Members to Test Drive upgraded Spacecraft

A veteran Cosmonaut, a former Japanese airline pilot and a trained microbiologist from the United States safely arrived in orbit after riding atop a Soyuz FG rocket blasting off from a remote launch pad in Kazakhstan Thursday morning. The international crew trio is set for a two-day approach to the Space Station for docking on Saturday to live and work in space for the next four months.

The 49.5-meter tall Soyuz rocket made a thundering summer morning liftoff at 1:36 UTC, 7:36a.m. local time, climbing into clear skies over the Baikonur Cosmodrome to depart to the north east to place Soyuz into an orbit from where it can climb up to the Space Station in its 400-Kilometer orbit. Soyuz MS-01 – the first in the upgraded line of crewed spacecraft – separated less than nine minutes into the flight after a smooth ride for the three crew members.