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Watch a Soyuz rocket lift off, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A NASA astronaut and his two Russian crewmates made the fastest-ever trip to the International Space Station on Thursday, arriving less than six hours after launch.

In the past, it's taken two days for Soyuz spaceships to make the trip from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But mission planners worked out a more efficient procedure that made it possible for the Soyuz to catch up with the station in just four orbits, compared with more than 30 orbits under the previous flight plan.

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, along with NASA's Chris Cassidy, rocketed into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday (2:43 a.m. Friday local time). "The spacecraft is nominal, we feel great," Vinogradov, the spacecraft's commander, reported as the rocket ascended to orbit.

NASA launch commentator Josh Byerly hailed Thursday's flight, saying that the crew was "on the fast track" to the station.

The six-hour trip lasted roughly as long as an airplane flight from Seattle to Miami. NASA officials say the fast-rendezvous procedure minimizes thetime that crew members spend in the Soyuz's close quarters and gets them to the much roomier space station in better shape. The down side is that the three spacefliers had to spend most of the trip sitting elbow to elbow in bulky spacesuits which might strike a familiar chord for Seattle-to-Miami fliers.

The fast-track technique relies on a complicated round of orbital choreography that was tested three times over the past eight months, using unmanned Russian Progress cargo ships.

Last week, the space station raised its orbit by about a mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) to put it in the correct position for intercepting the Soyuz. The Soyuz had to be launched at just the right moment, to get into just the right orbit at just the right distance behind the station. To catch up with the station at the right time, the Soyuz had to execute a precisely timed series of thruster firings a task that was made easier by an upgrade to the spacecraft's automated navigation system.

"From a technical point of view, we feel pretty comfortable with this," Cassidy said at a pre-launch news briefing. "All of the procedures are very similar to what we do in a two-day process, and we've trained it a number of times."

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Fastest ride to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- A privately owned cargo ship left the International Space Station with a full science load Tuesday and aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific.

Astronauts released the unmanned SpaceX capsule, named Dragon, from the end of the space station's giant robot arm. The parting occurred 250 miles over the South Pacific and was a poignant moment for the three space station residents, who had helped to snare the Dragon three weeks earlier.

"Sad to see the Dragon go," astronaut Thomas Marshburn told Mission Control. "Performed her job beautifully. Heading back to her lair. Wish her all the best for the splashdown today."

The Dragon was due to splash down off the Baja California coast 5 hours after its space station departure. It will be transported by ship to Los Angeles and then by truck to the SpaceX company's plant in McGregor, Texas.

Within hours, NASA will retrieve the science samples meticulously collected over the weeks and months by space station astronauts, as well as experiments that flew up with Dragon, such as flowering weeds and mouse stem cells. Old space station equipment and other items will be removed by SpaceX in McGregor. In all, more than 1 ton of gear was loaded into the capsule.

Dragon's return to Earth was delayed one day by bad weather in the splashdown zone.

The California-based SpaceX company launched the Dragon from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at the beginning of March. Mechanical trouble caused a one-day postponement in Dragon's arrival at the space station. SpaceX flight controllers at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., managed to fix the problem within hours.

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is run by billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune as a co-creator of PayPal. He also owns the electric car maker Tesla Motors.

NASA is paying SpaceX to resupply the space station. This was the second flight of a Dragon to the orbiting outpost under the $1.6 billion contract, and the third delivery mission altogether for SpaceX. The next flight is slated for late fall.

A competitor, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., plans a test flight of its Antares rocket and a dummy payload next month. That launch will be conducted from Wallops Island, Va.

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SpaceX Dragon cargo ship leaves space station

SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific today carrying samples and trash from the International Space Station. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

SpaceX said its robotic Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, bringing back more than a ton of cargo from the International Space Station.

"Welcome home!" the California-based company said in a Twitter update, heralding the Dragon's return to Earth after more than three weeks in space. SpaceX said its recovery crew watched the spacecraft descend to the sea at the end of its parachutes, and a ship headed to the site to haul the capsule aboard and bring it back to port.

"Time to go fishing!" the Canadian Space Agency said in a congratulatory tweet.

The on-time splashdown came at 12:34 p.m. ET, five and a half hours after the Dragon was released from the grip of the space station's robotic arm. "It looks both beautiful and nominal from here," Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, the station's commander, reported as the orbital outpost flew 256 miles (411 kilometers) above the Pacific.

NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn said he was "sad to see the Dragon go. ... Performed her job beautifully, heading back to her lair."

This marks the third time that SpaceX's commercial cargo craft has made a round trip to the space station. The first visit, in May 2012, showed NASA that the California-based company could deliver payloads safely. Last October, another Dragon took on the first of 12 cargo runs under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract with the space agency. This latest mission launched on March 1, carrying 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies and equipment.

SpaceX had to cope with a post-launchglitch involving the Dragon's thruster system, but the mission went swimmingly after that. Astronauts unloaded the cargo soon after its was brought in for its berthing at the station, and then refilled it with 2,600 pounds (1,180 kilograms) of payload items due to be returned to Earth including scientific experiments, station hardware and trash. Packaging brought the total weight past the 3,000-pound (1,360-kilogram) mark, SpaceX said.

NASA said the plant samples that were brought back from the station could help scientists enhance crop production on Earth and develop food production systems for future space missions. Other experiments carried by the Dragon could help in the development of more efficient solar cells, detergents and electronics.

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SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down with space station cargo

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RAW VIDEO: A crew of two Russians and one American arrives on the International Space Station. The incoming crew plans to spend five months on board.

A new Russian-American crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday after a fast-track trip from Earth of under six hours, the swiftest ever manned journey to the orbiting laboratory.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts opened the hatches of their Soyuz-TMA spaceship and floated into the ISS to a warm welcome from the three incumbent crew, live pictures broadcast on Russian television showed.

Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and American Chris Cassidy are now expected to spend the next five months aboard the station after their hitch-free launch and docking.

The International Space Station crew member US astronaut Chris Cassidy reacts after donning a space suit before the launch. Photo: Reuters

Their record-breaking trip from blast-off at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to docking with the ISS lasted less than six hours, slashing the usual travel time by some 45 hours.

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Previously, trips to the ISS had taken over two full days as spaceships orbited the Earth 30 times before docking with the space station.

However, under a new technique now employed by the Russian space agency with the help of new technology, the Soyuz capsule this time only orbited Earth four times before docking.

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Astronauts take record-breaking six-hour express ride to space station

When an alien parked a flying saucer at the International Space Station to say hello, astronaut Chris Hadfield turned to Twitter to report the earthshaking news. And if that sounds too good to be true that's because it is. Hadfield, it turns out, is a prankster.

Hadfield had a ball with April Fools' Day in space today (April 1), with the UFO stunt just one of his pranks. Earlier, the Canadian astronaut used his Twitter handle @Cmdr_Hadfield to post a photo of himself with space "grenades" he found on the station. It turns out, there were just harmless air sampling devices.

Over the course of seven hours, Hadfield wrote five posts on Twitter slowly revealing his elaborate April Fools' Day joke.

"The view from where we fly the Canadarm2, with some orbital debris off in the distance," Hadfield wrote. [7 Ways to Create a UFO Space Hoax]

The picture he posted to accompany that post shows him posing with a flying saucer-like object off in the distance.

His second photo is a little clearer, showing the UFO placed high above the Earth and on its way toward the space station.

"Orbital debris seems to be on a course moving a bit faster than ISS," Hadfield wrote. "I'll try to take more pictures if it swings by."

And "take" more pictures he did. The Canadian astronaut posted a photo of the flying saucer off in the distance with the orbiting laboratory's robotic arm in the foreground four hours after his initial post.

"Wow, what a huge piece of debris! Maybe I can grab it with the Canadarm2," Hadfield wrote.

Hadfield's grand finale showed the terrified looking commander holding a small green alien away from him with both hands.Quickly after that, Hadfield wrote: "The object appears to be coming closer to the Station. I think it might be trying to board us!"

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Astronaut Catches Alien on Space Station in April Fools' Prank