Russian cosmonauts launched on flight to International Space Station

Launched in 1998, the research platform orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth has been continuously occupied since November 2000 while operated by a U.S.-Russian-led partnership including Canada, Japan and 11 European countries. The three cosmonauts will join the station's current seven-member crew to replace three who are scheduled to fly back to Earth on March 30 - cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov and U.S. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

via Economictimes