By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A Russian rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a US astronaut took off on a six-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur space centre Friday.
Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, part of the ISS Expedition 23, are scheduled to land at the orbital station Sunday. They will return to earth Sep 16.
Docking at the ISS is planned for 9.26 a.m. Moscow time (0525 GMT).
The spacecraft will remain docked to the space station for the remainder of the expedition to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, US astronaut Timothy Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi are at present working on board the ISS.