Tension in Ukraine will not stop a mission to send two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Despite the sanctions the United States has been levying against Russia for its involvement with Ukraine, CBS News reported, ISS operations have not been effected. Earlier this month, two cosmonauts and one astronaut flew back to Earth from the ISS and landed safely in Kazakhstan.

Soyuz commander Oleg Kotov, flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins have ended a tour aboard the ISS. Now NASA and the Russian space agency are planning to follow through on schedule to replace those crewmembers.

Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson are scheduled to start their own ISS tour soon. Launch is scheduled for Tuesday evening in Kazakhstan (5:15 p.m. Tuesday ET).

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Scheduled to dock at the ISS late Tuesday night and will restore the crew to six people. Awaiting the three astronauts are NASA's Rick Mastracchio, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

Swanson told Space.com he is excited to finally be able to conduct experiments and live aboard the ISS, which is something he previously could only imagine.

"I do believe my perspective will change just because really being able to live there, you really have to adapt your whole body," Swanson said. "For six months you really have to adapt and how to live there if you're comfortable doing all that."

Mastracchio is an ISS veteran and commander Skvortsov will provide the same type of leadership for Artemyev, who is beginning his first ISS tour.

"I'll be able to compare the state of the International Space Station the way it is right now with what it used to be when I flew there last time, my first time," Skvortsov, who was on the ISS in 2010, said during a news conference. "As far as our goals go, I'd like to maintain the station in good condition, and leave it at least not worse than the way we found it."

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