Soyuz crew heads to space station
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The Soyuz TMA-03M carries U.S. and European astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut
- The Russia spacecraft will dock on Friday
(CNN) -- A Russian rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, with a crew of three bound for the International Space Station.
The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft carries U.S. astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers into orbit.
The launch happened just before 8:20 a.m. ET.
The trio will join their crewmates -- Flight Engineers Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin -- when their spacecraft docks with the space station Friday morning at 10:22 a.m.
