Flew with Musk rocket

3 Americans and one Russian arrived on the ISS

Flown safely to the ISS (from left): Alexander Grebenkin, Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epp(Bild: APA/AFP/Gregg Newton)

Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX has done it again. Another astronaut crew, consisting of one Russian and three Americans, has made it safely to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Crew Dragon rocket.

The so-called Crew-8 was launched on Sunday (local time) from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. They docked on Tuesday and were warmly welcomed by the current ISS crew, as seen in a video broadcast by the US space agency NASA.

This was the first time since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting tensions between the USA and Russia that space travelers from both countries have been in space together. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Michael Barratt, their colleague Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin are to work on the ISS for around six months.

ISS crew now consists of eleven people
Among other things, various medical experiments are planned. This is the first space flight for Epps, Grebenkin and Dominick, while Barratt is visiting the space station for the third time. This time there was already a crew of seven on board.