Soyuz crew heads to space station
01:01 - Source: CNN

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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.