Rocket in place for space station mission

Soyuz-FG Rocket carrying TMA-19 to ISS

Russian space officials moved a Soyuz-FG rocket to its launch pad Sunday in preparation for its flight to the International Space Station later this week.

The rocket will carry cosmonaut Yuri Yurchihin and U.S. astronauts Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelcock to the orbiting space station where they will join the current crew of two Russians and American Tracy Dyson.

The spacecraft, dubbed TMA-19, will lift off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The RIA Novosti news agency said engineers had raised the space station's orbit by 2 ½ kilometers (1.6 miles) to get into position to dock with TMA-19.