A Russia state commission on Friday approved three new crew members for the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of their Sunday takeoff.

The crew, comprising Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihito Hoshide, is scheduled to lift with the Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Sunday morning, Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.

The State Commission meeting also approved a backup team that consists of Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, local media reported.

Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center said previously that the new crew members have passed all exams at the training center.

Vitaly Lopota, president of Russia's Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, told local media the company was ready for the launch.

"All systems are in order, there are no problems with the equipment. We are ready for the launch," Interfax news agency quoted Lopota as saying.

Energia, the largest company of Russian space industry, is a lead developer of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and is in charge of all operations involving manned space flight.

The Soyuz carrier rocket is scheduled to blast off from Baikonur at 6:40 Moscow time (0240 GMT) on July 15, according to Roscosmos.

After the capsule's docking with the orbital station on July 17, the trio will join the current ISS crew, which includes Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, who have been in orbit since mid-May.

On July 1, a Soyuz spacecraft brought home another three-member crew from ISS, namely Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers.

After the retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet, Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is the only way for astronauts to reach the ISS at least until 2015.