Capsule carrying Russian, America, Japanese docks with International Space

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch Wednesday from Kazakhstan, sending three crewmembers to the worldwide Space Station.

Japan astronaut Kimiya Yui, top, US astronaut Kjell Lindgen, center, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, crew members of the next mission to the worldwide Space Station, wave before boarding their Soyuz TMA-17M rocket, at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, early Thursday, July 23, 2015.

All systems were reporting nominal after the third stage separated at 5:13 p.m. according to the Russian Space Agency.

A graduate of CU and CSU is scheduled to blast off Wednesday for the global Space Station.

Astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Kononenko are launching to the global Space Station, as part of the second portion of Expedition 44.

Three new worldwide Space Station crew members are making final preparations a day before their launch to the orbital laboratory.

The launch also marks an important milestone for Russia’s Soyuz rocket, which botched a Progress spacecraft deployment in May.

Another Progress successfully launched cargo to the ISS early this month, and NASA agreed the Soyuz was safe to launch. The crew – drawn from the US, Russian Federation and Japan – is set to reach the orbiting lab after a flight of about five hours and 43 minutes, commentator Kyle Herring said on a NASA webcast.

This will be Lindgren’s first space flight.

The newly arriving crew will remain onboard the outpost until December. The newcomers were greeted at the Russian segment Rassvet docking port by Gennady Padalka, the ISS commander, fellow cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA’s Scott Kelly.