Space is one of the few areas in which the US and Russia have continued to work together since the start of the Ukraine war around two years ago. Three US astronauts and a cosmonaut have now arrived on the ISS space station.
Three US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after their journey through space. The space capsule with the new space station occupants docked with the ISS.
After the hatch was opened, the new arrivals Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps and Michael Barratt from the USA and Alexander Grebenkin from Russia were warmly welcomed by the current ISS crew, as seen on the video broadcast from the US space agency NASA.
New crew should stay for six months
The crew members who have now arrived will replace four of the seven current ISS occupants. After a transition phase of a few days, the four crew members from the USA, Denmark, Japan and Russia will return to Earth.
The new crew is expected to work on the ISS for around six months, and various medical experiments are planned – including with stem cells. It is the first space flight for Epps, Dominick and Grebenkin, and Barratt is visiting the space station for the third time.
Success for space company SpaceX
As in the past, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX carried out the mission to replace personnel on the ISS space station. The so-called “Crew-8” took off from the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida on Sunday on board a “Crew Dragon” capsule using a Falcon 9 rocket.
The flight had been postponed several times. It was originally planned for February 22nd. This was the repeated time since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine and the resulting tensions between the USA and Russia that astronauts from both countries reached space together. Space is one of the few areas in which both countries still work together.