Two Russians and one American have departed for a six-month stay on the International Space Station for the Soyuz MS-17 mission, the first to use a cutting-edge rendezvous scheme that will slash the journey to just three hours.
That means the trip is shorter than a standard Moscow to London flight. The three travelers took off from a launch site in Kazakhstan just before noon local time on Wednesday, riding aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. They are expected to dock at the ISS in record time under the new flight plan.