Andrew S. W. Thomas

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is poised to launch toward the International Space Station Tuesday to deliver three new members of the orbiting laboratory's multi-cultural crew. The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to lift off at 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in Central Asia carrying two American astronauts and one veteran Russian cosmonaut toward the the space station ."The station has grown magnificently. You can't believe it," said cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who is returning to the space station on the Soyuz for the first time since 2007, in a prelaunch press conference. Yurchikhin will launch alongside NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker to join three other crewmates already aboard the International Space Station for the joint Expedition 24 mission at the nearly complete orbiting lab.It will actually be 3:35 a.m. local time on June 16 when Yurchikhin and his crewmates blast off, placing their liftoff on the 47th anniversary of the launch o...

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