U.S., Russian, Japanese crew arrive at space station

Members of the International Space Station expedition 54/55, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (C), NASA astronaut Scott Tingle (R) and Norishige Kanai (L) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during the send-off ceremony after checking their space suits before the launch of the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, 17 December 2017. REUTERS//Maxim Shipenkov/Pool

(Reuters) - A trio of U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Scott Tingle of NASA docked their Soyuz spacecraft about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth at 0839 GMT.

The docking completes their two-day journey following Sunday's blast-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft carrying the crew of Norishige Kanai of Japan, Anton Shkaplerov of Russia and Scott Tingle of the U.S. blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan December 17, 2017. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Shkaplerov, Kanai and Tingle join Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA, who have been aboard the space station since September.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)