A trio of American, German and Russian astronauts launched on a two-day trip to the International Space Station early this morning (June 6).

Coverage of the launch began at 6:15 a.m. EDT, with the astronauts' Soyuz rocket lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch facility in Kazakhstan at 7:12 a.m. EDT.

NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst pose during their final exam at the Gagarin Cosmonauts' Training Center in Star City outside Moscow on May 11, 2018. AFP - Getty Images

Aboard the rocket was NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor; Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency; and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. This is Gerst's second flight into space; the others are going up for the first time.

The astronauts are scheduled to dock with the station at 9:07 a.m. EDT on June 8, with the hatch opening expected around 11:05 a.m. EDT. They will spend six months aboard the station, joining the three-man crew already aboard.

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