MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft, which blasted off today, has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) in a manual mode 10 minutes behind schedule, Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.

Earlier, Roscosmos said the astronauts had to switch over from the automatic to manual mode.

"The objects touched each other at 20:33 Moscow Time," a Roscosmos spokesman told TASS.

"The docking took place in the manual mode due to a failure of automatic control. The commander switched to manual control, all took place in a normal mode," acting Roscosmos chief Alexander Ivanov told journalists.

The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-19M blasted off from the Baikonur Space Center in the afternoon. Russian Yury Malenchenko, American Timothy Kopra and European astronaut Timothy Peake headed to the ISS on board the spacecraft.