Soyuz heads to ISS on manned mission

AFP,03RD DECEMBER, 2018- A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit on Monday, the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Anne Mcclain of NASA and David Saint-jacques of the Canadian Space Agency blasted off for a six-and-ahalf month mission on the International Space Station on schedule at 1131 GMT.

A few minutes after their rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russian space agency Roscomos announced that the capsule was “successfully launched into orbit”.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed on Twitter that the crew were “safely in orbit” and thanked the US and Russian teams “for their dedication to making this launch a success”.