Posted: Tue, Apr 5, 2011, 3:44 AM ET (0744 GMT)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new International Space Station crew members lifted off Monday night from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on schedule at 6:18 pm EDT (2218 GMT) Monday, placing the Soyuz spacecraft into orbit nine minutes later. Soyuz TMA-21 is scheduled to dock with the ISS Wednesday at 7:18 pm EDT (2318 GMT). On board the spacecraft are Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko and American astronaut Ron Garan, who will join the three people currently on the station.