"It's so beautiful," U.S. astronaut Jack Fischer described today's trip to the ISS to his wife. The experience, he said, was "a burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce."

A two-man U.S./Russian crew floated into the International Space Station today, hours after they blasted from earth to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A NASA TV broadcast showed the Russian Soyuz capsule carrying U.S. astronaut Jack Fischer, 43, and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, 58, lifting off at 1:13 p.m. local time/3:13 a.m. EDT (0713 GMT), "with a rare empty third seat."

Snip from Reuters:

Russia is scaling back space station staffing until its long-delayed science laboratory is flown to the orbiting outpost next year. Fischer and Yurchikhin reached the $100 billion space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth on schedule at 9:18 a.m. EDT (1318 GMT). About two hours later, hatches between the Soyuz capsule and station opened. Fischer, on his first space voyage, and Yurchikhin floated into the waiting arms of station commander Peggy Whitson and her crew. Their first order of business was a congratulatory phone call from family and friends at the Russian mission control center outside of Moscow. "It's so beautiful," Fischer told his wife, describing the experience as "a burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce." Fischer also had some comforting words for his mother. "Mom, it's like me being in Texas, depending on where we are going around the Earth, I'll be just as close," he said. "I can still call you. So no need to miss me."

Here's footage of the moment the two new crew members arrived: