A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off and shot into orbit Wednesday, carrying a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts, all veteran space fliers, on a two-day flight to the International Space Station.

Ground controllers powered up the International Space Station’s robotic arm and repositioned a storage module Wednesday to give visiting cargo delivery vehicles a second parking port at the complex.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian commander, a NASA flight engineer and a Japanese physician-astronaut docked with the International Space Station early Tuesday, capping a smooth two-day rendezvous to boost the lab’s crew back to six.