Three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station early on Sunday, with NASA celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
Italian astronauts Luca Parmitano, American Andrew Morgan and Russian Alexander Skvortsov entered the orbital station on schedule after a six-hour flight from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Parmetano will lead the space station during the second half of his six-month mission and will become the first Italian to lead the station at all.
The 42-year-old Italian astronaut had already worked for the International Space Station in 2013. At one point during that period, he almost drowned in his space suit because of the pool of water in his helmet as he walked through space.
With the arrival of the three new pioneers, the six-member International Space Station (ISS) was completed. They joined US astronauts Christina Koch, Nick The Hague and Russian Alexey Offshinen, who lived and worked in space for about 130 days.
The six astronauts will spend more than six months conducting some 250 scientific research in areas such as biology, earth sciences, human research, physical sciences and technology development.
