Here, Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov, his senior colleague and spaceship commander Sergei Volkov of Russia and Danish astronaut Andreas Morgensen appeared completely relaxed before takeoff. Volkov (center) will stay the in space the longest - until March 2016 as the onboard engineer. The other two will only stay for a few days. Their return flight leaves September 11.

The Soyuz TMA-18M has been launched at the Kazakh spaceport of Baikonur on September 2 at 10:37 a.m. local time. (0437 UTC). The flight will take more than two days. At 13:42 p.m. Baikonur time - on September 4 - the space capsule is expected to dock to the ISS.

The capsule will dock to the Russian POISK module. It can be found in the center of this picture - in the shady part of the station. This miniature research module is a central building block of the Russian module, enabling more than three spaceships to dock at the same time.

Astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui are currently onboard the ISS. They'll be welcoming the new arrivals on Thursday. Here, they're tasting the first vegetables grown aboard the ISS. Certainly the newcomers are expected to bring something tasty for them as well...

The engineers and food processing experts are constantly trying new things to make eating and drinking in space a tasteful experience. Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy didn't even have to give up her habit of drinking fine espresso coffee: Italian engineers and product designers were able to invent zero-gravity espresso machine.

Crew members aboard the ISS have their hands full - usually conducting hundreds of scientific experiments prepared long before the flight. Sometimes, evaluating these experiments can only occur years after the flight. Most of the work is done inside the cabin. Only rarely do the astronauts leave the ISS, as Germany's Alexander Gerst is seen doing here in 2014.

Festive occasions are rare aboard the spaceship. Researchers spend most of their time working on their experiments. There is no mess hall, for example, where everyone might meet during breaks or for meals. Sometimes, crew members don't even see each other for days on end inside the long, winding pipe system of the ISS. Nonetheless, they all feel like one big family.

Volkov, Morgensen and Aimbetow must now spend two days together in the smallest of spaces - inside a tiny Soyuz space capsule. They have less space than in an economy-class passenger inside an airplane. After that experience, even the relatively small ISS will feel like a cathedral.