Soyuz spacecraft lifts new crew to ISS

The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft has blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver the members of the expedition 54/55 to the International Space Station. A few minutes after the launch, the spacecraft entered the Earth's orbit. Soyuz’s 136th flight is transporting Russian Commander Anton Shkaplerov, Japanese Flight Engineer Norishige Kanai and American Flight Engineer Scott D. Tingle, and will arrive at the ISS in two days’ time. The trio will join Aleksandr Misurkin from Roscosmos and Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba from NASA, who have been aboard the space station since September.