International Space Station crew members will answer questions from reporters following the scheduled hatch opening of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) of Houston will fund 29 proposals to help investigate questions about astronaut health and performance on future deep space exploration missions.

The three spaceflyers will live aboard the station for four months.

See eye-popping NASA launch photos of a Soyuz rocket carrying a new space station crew.

(AP) -- A three-man crew blasted off from a space center in southern Kazakhstan Tuesday morning on board a Russian-made Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station.

Flight Engineers Joe Acaba, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin are en route to the International Space Station after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:01pm EDT on May 14, 2012 aboard a Soyuz TMA-04M rocket.

The three astronauts are slated to arrive at the orbiting lab early Thursday.

The three spaceflyers will blast off from Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has finished an important evaluation of a prototype Dragon spacecraft designed to carry people into orbit. This key milestone is part of SpaceX's partnership with NASA under a funded Space Act Agreement to advance the design of crew transportation vehicles.

The next residents of the International Space Station are making final preparations for a May 14 launch.