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A Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending three spacefliers on a six-hour trip to the International Space Station.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
A Russian Soyuz rocket sent a NASA astronaut and two Russian crewmates on the fastest trip anyone has ever taken to the International Space Station on Thursday.
The spacefliers' Soyuz capsule is due to hook up with the station at around 10:30 p.m. ET, less than six hours after they were lofted into space from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff came at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday, which was 2:43 a.m. Friday at the Central Asian spaceport.
"The spacecraft is nominal, we feel great," Soyuz commander Pavel Vinogradov reported just after the rocket launched into the night.
Vinogradov was joined by Russia's Alexander Misurkin and NASA's Chris Cassidy. The trio will spend five and a half months aboard the orbital outpost. For the first part of that tour of duty, they'll be joined by the station's three current residents: Canadian commander Chris Hadfield, NASA's Tom Marshburn and Russia's Roman Romanenko.
The trip from Baikonur to the space station traditionally takes two days, but mission planners worked out a more efficient route that gives the Soyuz just six hours to catch up with its destination in orbit. The procedure has been tested three times over the past eight months, using unmanned Russian Progress cargo ships.
NASA launch commentator Josh Byerly hailed Thursday's first manned launch of a fast-rendezvous mission, saying that it put the crew "on the fast track" to the space station.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
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