Members of the crew of expedition 44/45 to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (L), Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui (R) and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko (C) attend the sending-off ceremony before boarding their Soyuz TMA-17M rocket, few hours before their launch to the International Space Station ISS, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, 22 July 2015. EPA/SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/POOL
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, July 23, 2015 (AFP) - Astronauts from Russia, Japan and the United States Thursday docked successfully with the International Space Station under six hours after they launched, NASA television showed.
The Soyuz TMA 17M rocket -- carrying cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, US astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui of Japan -- had roared skyward from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in the barren Kazakh steppe at 2102 GMT.
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