Two Russians and an American have been carried by a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station. Michael Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky are the three astronomers who took from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The astronomers will now join European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. They will stay in the space for five months. A space walk is also part of the mission that will see Kotov and Ryazanskiy taking an unlighted Olympic torch in a bid to promote Russia's 2014 Olympic Games.

According to the reports of Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, the spacecraft docked with the ISS at 02:45 GMT on Thursday. Russia's Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft with a Russian-US crew docked successfully with the International Space Station about six hours after the launch. The revelation was made by the agency in a statement on its website.

Among the three-crew members, Kotov is the most experienced. He has already spent a period of just short of a year in space. The spaceflight is the first time experience for Ryazansky and Hopkins. The latest launch is the third consecutive manned flight to the ISS under the short six-hour flight program. All manned Soyuz missions were planned under a two-day scheme until March this year.