New ISS crew prepares for launch

Pavel Vinogradov

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy have arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to prepare for the March 29 launch to the International Space Station.

Their Soyuz spacecraft is to reach the ISS in a record six hours due to a new fast-track launch trajectory.

The previous ISS crew of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin and US astronaut Kevin A. Ford safely landed at Baikonur earlier this Saturday, after having spent more than 143 says working on board the ISS.

Adverse weather conditions had forced the Russian space agency Roscosmos to postpone the undocking and landing of the Soyuz capsule.

The Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with three ISS crew members on board has landed safely in Kazakhstan and search teams are moving in to pick them up.

Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and US astronaut Thomas Marshburn remain on the space station.