Three astronauts blasting off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday are set to reach their destination in a record-breaking six hours rather than the standard two days. The astronauts - Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov of Russia and Chris Cassidy of the United States - are set to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2043 GMT and dock with the space station in the early hours of Friday, dpa reported. The fast-track schedule is thanks to a new docking manoeuvre that sees the Soyuz rocket carrying the trio making just four orbits around the Earth before it is in line with the ISS. Thursday's launch follows previous unmanned capsules successfully completing the six-hour route in recent months.
