ISS astronauts welcome two new crew members at International Space Station!

New Delhi: NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have finally arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) at 9:18 a.m. EDT on Thursday after a six-hour flight.

The two new crew member lifted off on Russia's Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft, atop a Soyuz-FG rocket, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:13 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 20.

Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin are welcomed by Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of ESA.

With the arrival of two new crew members, @Space_Station now has 5 people living onboard. Hatch opened at 11:25am ET https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi pic.twitter.com/VaPbtvw0CP — NASA (@NASA) April 20, 2017

The pair joined the three astronauts already living in the orbiting lab and became part of Expedition 51 crewmates.

The Expedition 51 crew members will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station, humanity’s only microgravity laboratory.

According to NASA, Fischer is a first-time space flier, whereas Yurchikhin is a veteran of four spaceflights. They will spend more than four months aboard the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth in early September.