NASA sends three crew members on 4-month mission to International Space Station

The launch marked the debut flight of a next-generation Russian Soyuz capsule, currently the only vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the space station, a $100 billion project of 15 countries.

The crew will travel in the upgraded Soyuz spacecraft, for two days, before reaching the docking to space station at 9:42 am on Saturday, July 9. All three will spend approximately four months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in October.