MOSCOW - A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew docked successfully to the International Space Station following a flawless launch.

The Soyuz craft, carrying NASA's Reid Wiseman, Russian cosmonaut Max Surayev and German Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency arrived at the station at 5:44 a.m. (0144 GMT) Thursday. They lifted off just less than six hours earlier from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Mission Control in Moscow congratulated the trio on a successful docking.

They are joining two Russians and an American who have been at the station since March.

The Russian and U.S. space agencies have continued to co-operate despite friction between the two countries over Ukraine. NASA depends on the Russian spacecraft to ferry crews to the space station and pays Russia nearly $71 million per seat.