Nasa astronauts blast off on SpaceX rocket to ISS with a Russian crew member as they start new six month mission

FOUR astronauts have successfully landed on the International Space Station (ISS) today ahead of a six-month science mission.

With the help of SpaceX, Nasa has placed three of its own astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on the orbital outpost, where they will remain for the next 180 days.

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The crew includes Nasa astronauts, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, alongside Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin.

Space is one of the final frontiers that the US and Russia continue to cooperate in.

The successful launch from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 10:53pm ET (3:53pm GMT) today, marks SpaceX eighth Nasa Commercial Crew flight to the ISS.

It takes roughly four hours to reach the ISS after launching from Earth.

The mission endured a rocky start when two previous launch windows were scrubbed over strong winds.

Despite a small crack on the hatch seal, engineers determined that it wouldn’t present enough of an issue to abort the launch a third time.

Crew-8 plan to do hundreds of experiments aboard the ISS, including growing artificial replicas of human organs to study how microgravity effects degenerative diseases.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk