American-Russian trio successfully docks at International Space Station

An American-Russia trio successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, joining the other seven people currently on the station.

The trio consists of NASA’s Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov.

“When we started, we were competing with each other, and that was one of the reasons we were so successful at the beginning of human space flight,” Vande Hei said at a news conference, The Associated Press reported. “And as time went on, we realized that by working together we can achieve even more. And of course, that’s continuing to this day and I hope that it will continue into the future.”

The three took off from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan, which is leased to Russia. Dubrov is going on his first space mission, Vande Hei his second and Novitskiy his third, according to the AP.

The trip was more than three hours as the astronauts had a two-orbit trip before landing at the station.

The flight comes three days after the 40th anniversary of NASA’s first space shuttle launch and the 60th anniversary of the Soviets completing the first human flight to space, the AP noted. 

The three are expected to work with others on the ISS conducting hundreds of biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science experiments.

Experiments on the space station have recently led scientists to discover three new strains of bacteria.