A Russian Soyuz-FG carrier rocket was moved early on Sunday to a launch pad at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan ahead of the June 16 mission to the International Space Station.
The rocket carries the Soyuz TMA-19 manned spacecraft, which will bring new members of the Expedition 24 to the ISS.
The three new ISS crew members are Russian cosmonaut Yury Yurchihin and U.S. astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker.
They will join Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko, and U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who currently man the station.
The ISS orbit was raised by 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) on June 8 to ensure the best conditions for the docking of the Soyuz TMA-19.
The TMA-19 mission will be the 106th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the start of the program in 1967.
The Soyuz spacecraft will most likely remain docked to the space station for the remainder of Expedition 24 to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.
BAIKONUR SPACE CENTER, June 13 (RIA Novosti)
