Nov 18, 2016: Two space veterans and a rookie French astronaut are on their way to the International Space Station for a five-month mission.

American astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and France's Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Friday morning from Kazakhstan.

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This will be a record-breaking mission for Whitson. At 56, she is the oldest woman to fly in space, and by the time the mission is over, she will set a new record for the most hours accumulated in space by an American.

The current record is 534 days held by astronaut Jeff Williams.

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"The most important thing about the station is the friendships and the work we accomplish there," Whitson said before the launch.

Novitskiy is making his second trip to the space station, and this will be the first for Pesquet. They will join the three-man crew currently aboard the station. (VOA)