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Russia puts Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft in orbit

The launch was part of the 50th mission to the International Space Station

© Marina Lystseva/TASS, archive

BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, November 17. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft with three crew members blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan late Thursday and reached orbit several minutes later, a Roscosmos spokesman said.

"The spacecraft separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-FG rocket," he said.

The spacecraft carries Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.

It is the 50th mission to the ISS.

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