The three newest residents of the International Space Station sped into orbit Wednesday aboard a Soyuz launcher after liftoff into an overcast sky over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. These photos show the crew putting on their spacesuits and their mid-afternoon launch.

Three crewmen from Russia, the United States and Great Britain blasted off toward the International Space Station on Tuesday, rocketing into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in pursuit of the orbiting research lab.

SpaceX performed a dramatic high-altitude test flight Sunday of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule over Florida’s Space Coast, testing the human-rated ship’s ability to escape a rocket failure and save its crew before two NASA astronauts strap in for a flight to the International Space Station as soon as this spring.