Soyuz blasts off to space

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, beginning its historic mission that will double the crew of the International Space Station.

The space vehicle set off from the Gagarin launch pad on its two-day journey to the orbiting space station where the crew will be increased to an unprecedented six crew members. The crew consists of Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk and Belgium’s Frank De Winne.

This is the first time that the ISS will be hosting six people at any one time. NASA says that the space station in the future could hold as many as 13.

With the latest addition, the station will see representatives from all the countries participating in the ISS program: Russia, the US, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.