Two Rookie Astronauts, Cosmonaut Blast Off To International Space Station

Baikonur, Kazakhstan:  A three-man space crew featuring American and Japanese rookie astronauts as well as an experienced Russian cosmonaut blasted off on Sunday for a six-month mission at the International Space Station.

Scott Tingle of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency powered into the sky in a Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:21 pm (0721 GMT), according to footage aired by the Russian space agency.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)