Last Thursday, a Russian Soyuz rocket soared into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in order to deliver three cosmonauts, Russian commander Maksim Surayev, American flight engineer Gregory Wiseman, and German astronaut Alexander Gerst to the International Space Station.

In the pictures you can see the launch of the Russian-built Soyuz TMA – 13M rocket, that was characterized as “flawless” by NASA spokesman, after the crew made it safely to orbit.

It should be noted that the Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) delivering the new crew, about six hours after the launch. The three space travelers are scheduled to spend five and a half months on the ISS, in order to conduct several experiments.

Despite the tensions between Russia and U.S. over Ukraine, the space agencies of the two countries continue to cooperate.

NASA is completely dependent on Russia to transport astronauts to the space station and Russia charges about $71 million per seat on the Soyuz.

Until last year, Russian spacecraft used to travel two days to reach the station, and this will be only the fifth time that a crew has taken the six-hour “fast-track” route.