BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, September 25. /TASS/. Russia’s manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-15 carrying a crew of three to the International Space Station has separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-FG rocket and begun an autonomous flight to the ISS, the announcer at the command center said.

The launch took place at 16:57 Moscow time. There is a crew of three on board on the way to the International Space Station: Russia’s cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA’s Jessica Meir and the United Arab Emirates’ first astronaut Hazza al-Mansouri.

Under a newly-adopted launch procedure the Soyuz MS-15 is to make a fast-tracked six-hour journey. It will dock with the ISS after making just four orbits around the Earth at 22:45 Moscow time on September 25.

It was the 70th and last launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket, equipped with the analogous control system of Ukrainian manufacture. From now on all Soyuz spacecraft will be put in space with Soyuz-2.1a rockets having a Russian-made control system.