WASHINGTON, March 27 -- The spacecraft carrying three people docked Saturday with the International Space Station (ISS), according to a NASA Television broadcast.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, 54, and U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, 51, are to spend 342 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, about twice as long as a standard mission on the station.

Russia's cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, 56, is expected to stay for a six months at the ISS.

The spacecraft docked about six hours after launching from Russia's manned space facility in Kazakhstan.