The rocket, carrying a three-member crew that includes a German scientist and a Russian engineer who hopes to set an endurance record for women in space, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Itar-Tass reported. The crew completed the docking and boarded the space station early Thursday.
Aboard the Soyuz were Ulf Merbold of the European Space Agency, engineer Yelena Kondakova and commander Alexander Viktorenko.
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