A 16-story Soyuz rocket lifted off at 2102 UTC on Wednesday and was expected to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) about six hours later. Its capsule was carrying Oleg Kononenko from Russia, Kjell Lindgren from the United States and Kimiya Yui of Japan. The lift-off was broadcast live on NASA TV.

Full crew on ISS for first time in six weeks

The impending arrival of Lindgren, 42, Kononenko, 51, and Yui, 45, was set return the space station to a full six-member crew for the first time in six weeks. They are intended to join Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly on the ISS. The latter two have been more than four months into a nearly year-long mission on the space station.

"We look forward to seeing them," space station flight engineer Scott Kelly had said during an inflight interview on Tuesday.

The rocket reached its orbiting height in about 15 minutes after launch and was scheduled to circle the Earth four times before heading for the space station, which is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth.

Lindgren and Yui were reported to be travelling on their first trips into space.

Rocky start

The launch had to be postponed by about two months after the April failure of an unmanned Russian cargo ship, which raised concerns about Russian rocketry. Another Russian cargo ship was successfully launched in early July.

A week ago, the ISS' existing crew had to shelter from space junk in a near-miss event.

ss/bw (AP, Reuters)