A spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut has blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft was carrying Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim.
The trio are scheduled to spend about eight months at the space outpost.
NASA said Kim will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare the crew for future space missions and provide benefits to people on Earth. A native of Los Angeles, Kim is a US Navy lieutenant commander and dual-designated naval aviator and flight surgeon.
Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will join NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Kirill Peskov on the space outpost.
with AP and DPA