Moscow, April 09, 2020, SPA -- A trio of US and Russian spacefarers are set to blast off for the International Space Station from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 1:05 pm (0805 GMT), dpa reported. US astronaut Christopher Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will travel aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and are scheduled to dock with the ISS's Poisk module after about six hours of spaceflight. The space station orbits about 400 kilometres above Earth and has a mostly US and Russian crew. The laboratory is tasked with conducting scientific experiments that would be impossible on Earth's surface. The new additions to the ISS crew are to join US astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka. Next week, on April 17, Morgan, Meir and Skripochka are scheduled to return to Earth. --SPA 11:38 LOCAL TIME 08:38 GMT 0005 www.spa.gov.sa/w1303981