Finally, on July 22, at 5:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, the three astronauts, whose send off was delayed for two months, were successfully sent to the International Space Station. There was even a live telecast and Internet viewing on this momentous event, courtesy of NASA TV.

According to Space.com, the Souyz space capsule blasted off from the space launching facility that was manned by Russians in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.  The new International Space Station crew members were expected to dock six hours after the space capsule took off. They will be in space for five months. 

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The three astronauts are American, Russian and Japanese. They are Oleg Kononenko, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui. They will join Gennady Padalka, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko who have been in the International Space Station for quite some time. Kelly and Kornienko have been in space for more than four months for this mission that will take almost a year to complete. 

Kononenko has been out to space several times. This space launch however, will be the first experience for both Yui and Lindgren. They will be replacing three other crew members who have returned successfully to Earth last June 11.

There were some complications that delayed the three astronauts' journey to space that was originally set late May. Gizmodo reported that the delay of the Wednesday space launch was due to a failure of Progress 59 cargo mission, a Russian cargo ship that launched last April. It has raised some quite serious concerns on Russian rocketry and the safety of the people who will be joining the space mission. 

Fox News reported on the Progress 59's mishap last May. The spacecraft fell back to Earth without reaching the International Space Station. Apparently, what caused the mishap was the third stage of the Soyuz rocket. Since the Soyuz booster can also become a manned spacecraft, NASA was very alarmed.

The investigations on what could have led the Progress 59 cargo mission to fail took weeks to finish. However, earlier this month, there was another Russian cargo ship that was successfully launched while ensuring the safety of the astronauts.  

TagsInternational Space Station, NASA, NASA Space Mission, Space, outer space