CNN —A NASA astronaut on her inaugural spaceflight and two cosmonauts launched aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft toward the International Space Station Friday, marking the first time Russia has launched astronauts to the orbiting outpost in nearly a year. The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 a.m. ET and began a quick, three-hour trajectory to rendezvous with the space station. Once at the space station, the group will prepare to take over operations from a trio of crew members that have been on the space station for nearly a year after launching aboard the Soyuz MS-22 vehicle. The most recent SpaceX flight arrived at the space station in August, carrying astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency.

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Persons: Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai, Roscosmos, Frank Rubio, Rubio, Valeri Polyakov, Rubio —, O’Hara — Organizations: CNN, NASA, Russian Soyuz, Soyuz, Baikonur, Oceanographic, SpaceX, Roscosmos, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, European Space Agency Locations: Russian, Russia, Kazakhstan, Massachusetts, United States, Ukraine