Russian capsule heads for space station

The crew --- Yuri Malenchenko of Russia, Timothy Kopra of NASA and Briton Timothy Peake, representing the ESA -- will spend 6 months aboard the ISS.

In this handout image supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA), Expedition 46-47 crewmembers ESA astronaut Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and commander Yuri Malenchenko launch into space from Baikonur cosmodrome on Tuesday in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Soyuz TMA-19M is carrying the crewmembers to the International Space Station for a six-month mission, as part of Expedition 46.

A Russian space capsule carrying three astronauts from the United States, Britain and Russia has blasted off for the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-19M is scheduled to dock with the orbiting laboratory at 8.23 p.m. Moscow time (1723 GMT) Tuesday, about six-and-a-half hours after it lifted off from the Russian manned space launch facility on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

No reported problems

The launch went off with no reported problems and the capsule entered orbit about nine minutes after liftoff, at an altitude of about 125 miles (212 kilometres).

Aboard are Russian Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Kopra of NASA and Briton Timothy Peake, representing the European Space Agency.

Mission to spend 6 months aboard ISS

The mission is to spend six months aboard the space station. Already aboard are Russians Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko, along with American Scott Kelly. The latter two have been on the space station since March and are on a year-long mission.