U.S.-Russian crew blasts into space

By Dana Ford, CNN

updated 10:35 PM EDT, Tue March 25, 2014 |

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Blastoff!

A fresh crew took off for the International Space Station on Tuesday aboard a Russian rocket.

Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev -- of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) -- and Steve Swanson of NASA are riding inside the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft, NASA said in a statement.

They launched at 5:17 p.m. ET from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and were expected to dock some six hours later.

But the spacecraft was not able to complete its third thruster burn, delaying the crew's arrival, NASA said. They are now scheduled to reach the space station on Thursday.

Initial information suggests the spacecraft was not in the proper orientation for the burn.

The three astronauts were reported to be in good condition.

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U.S.-Russian crew blasts into space