Soyuz rocket launches on mission to space station

July 15, 2012

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- A Russian Soyuz craft has launched into the morning skies over Kazakhstan on July 15 carrying three astronauts on their way to the international space station.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Japan's Akihito Hoshide will travel two days before reaching their three colleagues already at the permanent space outpost.

Family members and colleagues watched the launch from an observation platform in the Russian-leased cosmodrome in the dry southern steppes of this sprawling Central Asian nation.

The space station, which orbits up to 410 kilometers (255 miles) above the earth, is bracing to handle an unprecedented level of traffic.

Japan's HTV3 cargo ship will dock with the space station next week and will be the first of nine craft making contact with the orbiting satellite over a 17-day span.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, right, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, gesture prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on July 15. (AP Photo/Pool)

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, right, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, gesture prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on July 15. (AP Photo/Pool)

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  • Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, right, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, gesture prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on July 15. (AP Photo/Pool)