Russian and US astronauts arrive at ISS

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut has docked with the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

The capsule blasted off from the Russian manned space launch facility in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning and docked with the orbiting laboratory about five and a half hours later.

Tests and opening of the hatches was expected to take about 90 minutes before the capsule can enter the space station.

Joe Acaba of NASA is making his third trip into space and Russian Alexander Misurkin his second. It's the first voyage for American Mark Vande Hei. All are to stay on the space station about six months.

They will join Russia's Sergey Ryazanskiy, American Randy Bresnik and Italy's Paolo Nespoli, who have been aboard the station since July.