After a six-and-a-half-hour trip, a Russian space capsule carry three astronauts from the United States, Britain and Russia arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft officially blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:03 a.m. EST. The capsule docked with the orbiting laboratory at 12:33 p.m. EST.

Astronauts Tim Kopra, of NASA, and Tim Peake, of the European Space Agency, as well as cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, of Roscosmos, were on board the Soyuz vehicle.

The launch went off with no reported problems and the capsule entered orbit about nine minutes after liftoff, at an altitude of about 125 miles (212 kilometers).

The trio joined Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly, of NASA, and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov, both of Roscosmos.

They will spend the next six months aboard the International Space Station, continuing hundreds of experiments. The International Space Station now has six members again.

The incoming crew replaced Expedition 45 Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren (NASA), Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos) and Kimiya Yui, of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who all returned to Earth on Dec. 11, 2015.


All remains good for Tim Kopra, Tim Peake and Yuri Malenchenko just minutes after liftoff as they head to the International Space Station. (NASA)

British astronaut hopes to see new Star Wars movie in space

Timothy Peake, the first Briton to represent the European Space Agency aboard the International Space Station, will be away from the planet for six months but looks forward to Earthly pleasures like seeing the new Star Wars movie and having a Christmas pudding.

Peake blasted off Tuesday from the Russian manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, along with Timothy Kopra of the United States and Russian Yuri Malenchenko.

At a crew news conference on Monday, Peake said he expects ground staff will be able to download "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" for the crew to watch.

Peake says he's also looking forward to microgravity experiments inspired by Isaac Newton.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.