Russia's manned spacecraft docked with ISS

MOSCOW - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three has docked at the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Thursday.

The spaceship docked with the Russian Poisk module aboard the space station at 8:38 Moscow time (0438 GMT) in automatic mode, the space agency said.

The Soyuz rocket, carrying the manned spacecraft, blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday with Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba.

It was crew commander Padalka's fourth space flight and first space trip for environmental engineer Revin. California-born hydrogeologist Acaba, who performed his first spacewalk in 2009, is celebrating his 45th birthday in space on Thursday.