SpaceX crew arrives at the International Space Station

 SpaceX's Crew Dragon crew of four, including a Russian astronaut and the first Native American to be sent into orbit, arrived safely at the International Space Station on Thursday to begin a five-month science mission. The Crew Dragon capsule, which flies independently into orbit, was launched last Wednesday aboard the SpaceX "Falcon 9" rocket, which was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The crew consists of two American astronauts at NASA, Nicole Onapo Mann and Josh Kasada, as well as Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and astronaut Anna Kekina, the first Russian to board an American spacecraft in 20 years. Kekina's participation is an indication of continued Russian-US cooperation in space despite the escalating tension between the two countries over the war in Ukraine.

Kikina joined the Space Crow 5 mission under a new ride-sharing agreement that NASA struck in July with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, that allows the two countries to continue flying each other's spacecraft to and from the International Space Station.

Astronaut

Team leader Mann is the first Native American to be sent by NASA into space.

The first woman to lead the Crew Dragon expedition.

The first in a group of 18 astronauts selected for NASA's Artemis missions aimed at returning humans to the Moon later this decade.

The crew is likely to return home from the space station sometime next week.

The new arrivals are set to perform more than 200 experiments during their 150-day mission, many of which focus on medical research ranging from 3D "bio-printing" of human tissue to the study of bacteria cultured in microgravity.