A Soyuz space capsule carrying a Russian, an American and a Japanese docked smoothly on Thursday with the International Space Station.<br /><br /> The capsule connected to the orbiting laboratory about 400 kilometres above Earth at 0345 CET.<br /><br /> The rocket reached orbit about 15 minutes after launch and circled the Earth four times before heading for the space station.<br /><br /> It had lifted off from a Russian manned launch facility in Kazakhstan about 5 hours and 45 minutes earlier at 2302 GMT Wednesday.
