Soyuz rocket streaks into orbit with three bound for station

Russia's Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Terry Virts, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency's Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti blasts off from the launch pad at Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome late on November 23, 2014. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

Braving near-zero temperatures, a workhorse Soyuz rocket carrying a crew of three -- a veteran cosmonaut, a NASA shuttle pilot and an Italian fighter pilot making her first space flight -- vaulted into orbit Sunday, kicking off a six-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Launching almost directly into the plane of the station's orbit, Soyuz TMA-15M commander Anton Shkaplerov, flanked on the left by European Space Agency flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti and on the right by NASA astronaut Terry Virts, lifted off from complex 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01:14 p.m. EST (GMT-5; 3:01 a.m. Monday local time).

Trailing a brilliant plume of fiery exhaust, the Soyuz booster quickly climbed away from launch complex 31, knifing through low clouds and disappearing from view as the crackling roar of its first-stage engines thundered across the sprawling space center.

Live television from inside the TMA-15M command module showed Shkaplerov, strapped into the center seat, calmly monitoring cockpit displays and providing status reports to flight controllers. All three crew members appeared relaxed in the cramped cockpit, tightly strapped into their custom-contour seats as the booster accelerated toward orbit.

"Everything's fine on board, everything's nominal," Shkaplerov radioed.

The space station passed 260 miles above Baikonur a few moments before liftoff and commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore reported he was able to see the Soyuz as it climbed out of the clouds more than 500 miles behind and below the lab complex.

The rocket's four oxygen-kerosene-powered strap on-boosters shut down and fell away about two minutes after liftoff, followed three minutes later by shutdown of the second stage core booster. The third stage engine then ignited, the second stage fell away and the Soyuz continued the climb to orbit.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, right, monitors cockpit displays during the climb to orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Commander Anton Shkaplerov is strapped into the spacecrart's center seat, to Cristoforetti's right. NASA flight engineer Terry Virts is out of view to the commander's right.

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Soyuz rocket streaks into orbit with three bound for station