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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 11:50
​Space launch includes 1st flyer from United Arab Emirates
By Associated Press
Thursday, September 26, 2019, 11:50 By Associated Press

This photo provided by NASA astronaut Christina Koch shows the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket, as seen from the International Space Station on Sept 25, 2019. (CHRISTINA KOCH / NASA VIA AP)

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — An American, a Russian and the first space flyer from the United Arab Emirates blasted off Wednesday on a mission to the International Space Station.

The ship carry NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, a military pilot from the UAE

A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off at 6:57 pm from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome to lift a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft into orbit.

READ MORE: US asks Russia to delay Soyuz MS-13 launch for two weeks

The ship carrying NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, a military pilot from the UAE, docked at the International Space Station about six hours later.

It was the third spaceflight for Skripochka and the first for Meir and al-Mansoori, who flew to the station was on an eight-day mission under a contract between the UAE and Roscosmos.

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Al-Mansoori was the first of two men chosen by the Gulf Arab nation to fly to the space station.

The trio will join two Russians, three Americans and an Italian aboard the space station. Meir and Skripochka will spend more than six months in orbit. Al-Mansoori will return to Earth next week with Russia's Alexey Ovchinin and NASA's Nick Hague.

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