The first upgraded Russian Soyuz spaceship with three astronauts onboard blasted off this morning from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. A Baikonur space centre spokesman said the space ship has now entered the designated orbit. He said the spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station after two days of flight in automatic mode on Sunday. The expedition of the latest crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, as well as NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, will last for over five months. They will join the existing 25th mission at the space station comprising NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker, as well as Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.