Astronauts Launch to Space Station on Express Trip

A Russian rocket carrying a trio of astronauts is on its way to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin successfully launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan toward the orbiting outpost today (May 28) at 4:31 p.m. EDT (2031 GMT). The local time was early Wednesday.

The three newest space station crewmembers are expected to arrive just six hours after launch, in the second ever one-day manned trip to the International Space Station. [See Photos of the Express Launch ]

"Soyuz blazing into the night sky over Kazakhstan," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said upon launch.

Yurchikhin, the commander of the Soyuz, chose a toy dog as the crew's mascot. The cosmonaut got the stuffed animal as a gift 30 years ago, and he brought it with him to space in 2010 as well. The Soyuz commander also brought toys given to him by his daughters into the capsule.

Speedy trip

The Soyuz crew is scheduled to arrive at the station's Rassvet module at 10:17 p.m. EDT (0217 May 29 GMT). You can watch live coverage of the docking on SPACE.com starting at 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 May 29 GMT).

It usually takes about two days for a manned Soyuz spacecraft to reach the International Space Station, but this time, the astronauts will make only four orbits of the Earth before docking.

Although many unmanned cargo ships do these kinds of expedited docking procedures regularly, only one other Soyuz crew has flown to the space station using this method.

NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin the three astronauts currently living and working on the space station were the first crew to do the one-day launch and docking when they blasted off to the station in March.

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Astronauts Launch to Space Station on Express Trip