Kazakhstan: Expedition 48 spacecraft bound for ISS launches successfully

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying International Space Station expedition 48 crew members successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the early hours of Thursday morning. The spacecraft is carrying NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The crew will test modified systems on the Soyuz for 34 Earth orbits over two days before docking to the space station's Rassvet module on Saturday.
Aboard the ISS the crew will then participate in a number of studies to improve scientific knowledge of space and the earth in order to provide new insights into how the human body adjusts to isolation, weightlessness, radiation and the stress of long-duration spaceflight.