Two astronauts, cosmonaut blast off to ISS

A three-man space crew featuring American and Japanese rookie astronauts as well as an experienced Russian cosmonaut yesterday blasted off 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).

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Nasa TV footage from inside the Soyuz capsule showed a toy poodle made by Shkaplerov's cousin and modelled on the cosmonaut's family dog floating around the capsule as the spacecraft entered zero gravity.

Roscosmos confirmed the Soyuz crew had launched "successfully" in a statement on the space agency's website.