US-Russian crew lifts off to ISS for 8-month mission

A joint US-Russian crew launched early Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will spend the next eight months conducting research.

The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft lifted off at 05:57 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.

The capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 09:03 GMT, just over three hours after launch.