A Russian Soyuz capsule usually takes at least two days to rendezvous with the ISS, because of the carefully timed dance of manoeuvres that must take place for a spaceship to safely meet the orbiting laboratory. Using a new launch process, three astronauts have now made the trip in just under 6 hours. 

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy launched at 20:43 GMT on 28 March from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soaring high above the western coast of Peru, they successfully docked with the space station at 02:28 GMT on 29 March - a flight time of just 5 hours, 45 minutes.