US-Russian trio blast off on mission to space station

MOSCOW: A Russian-US trio of space travelers launched successfully Friday, heading for the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov blasted off as scheduled at 12:42 p.m. (0742 GMT, 3:42 a.m. EDT) aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.
They are set to dock at the station after a two-orbit, three-hour journey. It's the second space mission for Vande Hei and the third for Novitskiy, while Dubrov is on his first mission.
During their mission, the crew will work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.