Two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, headed for a mission of more than five months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The Soyuz MS-06 rocket carrying Alexander Misurkin of the Russia's Roscosmos space agency, NASA first-time flyer Mark Vande Hei and his veteran colleague Joe Acaba launched at 3:17 am (2117 GMT), according to images broadcast by Roscosmos