A Soyuz spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan on Friday, and now it has docked with the International Space Station, signaling a new era for the ISS. The new ISS crew, which includes NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency), have successfully boarded the orbiting laboratory and are ready to kick off Expedition 52.

The crew launched aboard a Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After orbiting the Earth four times, it docked at the ISS. The crew must go through some pressurization and leak checks before they can board the ISS.

That means there are now a total of six people on board the ISS. The new Expedition 2 will be on the ISS for four months, and conduct 250 science experiments. They will await some new science investigations set to arrive on SpaceX’s commercial resupply mission set for launch in August.

“After a six-hour spaceflight, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) arrived at the International Space Station at 5:54 p.m. EDT Friday to continue important scientific research in the orbiting laboratory,” NASA said in a statement. “The three crewmates launched aboard the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:41 a.m. (9:41 p.m. Baikonur time), orbited Earth four times, and docked at the space station. Following standard pressurization and leak checks, the hatches between the spacecraft and station will be opened.”