A Russian Soyuz spacecraft has lifted off for the International Space Station carrying the ISS-66 expedition crew, which includes cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov.

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying the new cosmonaut team was lift-off at 1555 GMT from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a three-hour-plus ride to the space station.

They will join the station's current seven-member crew to replace three who are scheduled to fly back to Earth on March 30.

Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed in a statement that the trio had successfully entered orbit beginning a half-year mission aboard the lab.

"For the first time in many years, a completely Russian crew," Dmitry Rogozin, general director of Roscosmos, Russia's federal space corporation, wrote Friday on Twitter.

(With input from agencies)