( CNN ) -- In six hours , a person might walk 18 or so miles . By car , it could be 350-plus miles . A commercial airplane might get as far as 3,400 miles . A spaceship ? In that much time , you could get from Earth to the International Space Station . That 's what happened with a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft , which launched from Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m . ET Thursday , or 2:43 a.m. Friday local time , with three soon-to-be space station crew members on board . NASA mission control declared `` contact and capture confirmed '' at 10:28 p.m . ET -- four minutes earlier than planned -- indicating the spacecraft had successfully docked . This six-hour jaunt was exponentially faster than the normal two-day adventure that astronauts and cosmonauts typically take to get to the ISS . That 's because , while the live-in orbiter is a mere 250 miles from Earth , it 's always moving -- so it 's not a simple matter of going from Point A to Point B . That 's why it has traditionally taken so long to get there , with the spacecraft going round the Earth every 90 or so minutes , which works out to about 16 total before docking . More space news on CNN Light Years . But this go around , the Soyuz only orbited four times before hooking up with the space station . `` We 're trying to cut that amount of time that they had to be in those close quarters , '' NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said , noting the spacecraft has a basic bathroom but little living space . `` ... They may be sharper now , if they 'd have to take over the docking . '' SpaceX 'Dragon ' capsule returns from ISS trip . The NASA spokesman explained that equipment and computer software upgrades , among other factors , helped to make Thursday 's historically fast flight possible . And it 's possible space officials might decide that the longer , old-fashioned way -- allowing the crew to get its space legs over two days , however cramped they might be -- is preferable , depending on how this mission goes , Humphries said . This pioneering , fast-track crew was made up Pavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin from Russia 's space agency , as well as NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy . With their voyage complete -- and once the space station 's hatches open for them , scheduled for soon after midnight -- they 'll have plenty of time to get comfy : They are scheduled to remain on the orbiter for about six months before heading home . READ MORE : Chinese space debris hits Russian satellite , scientists say . INTERACTIVE : Images from space track relentless spread of humanity .
NEW : The spacecraft docks at less than six hours p.m . ET after flight of less than six hours . Up until now , it would take two days for crews to go from Earth to the space station . The spacecraft orbited Earth three times before docking , compared to the usual three orbits . Its three -member crew will remain on the space station through two days .