March 15 (UPI) -- The International Space Station has three new crew members. NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, as well as cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, arrived late Thursday night.
This week's trip marked the second time Hague and Ovchinin have attempted to travel to the International Space Station. Last October, the pair were forced to abort their mission shortly after launch. Hague and Ovchinin ejected from the failed rocket and parachuted to safety.
"We [were] at the apex of our trajectory, and I'm staring out there at the curve of the Earth, and the darkness of space ... you're so close you can touch it," Hague told the Air Force News Service. "And to have that ripped out of your hands, that's devastating."
Now, more than five months after the harrowing event, the duo are safe on the space station.
Hague, Koch and Ovchinin joined NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Expedition 59 commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, as well as David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency.
During their time on ISS, the astronauts will manage as many 250 different scientific experiments. It was the importance of the space station's scientific mission that compelled Hague to get back inside a Soyuz spacecraft.
"The mission we're doing is so important," Hague said. "It's a mission where we're going up there and collecting data so the scientists on the ground can better understand our world, they can better understand our bodies, they can better understand the world around us ... and that's a vital mission that's benefitting all of humanity."
In addition to carrying out science experiments in the fields of biology, physics, medicine and more, Hague and his fellow crew members will also help dock and unload several cargo shipments, as well as perform a handful of spacewalks to repair and upgrade the station's orbital laboratory.
"McClain and Koch will complete the upgrades to two station power channels during a March 29 spacewalk," according to a NASA update. "This will be the first-ever spacewalk with all-female space-walkers."
McClain, Saint-Jacques and Kononenko are scheduled to return to Earth in June, while Hague, Koch and Ovchinin remain onboard the space station until early fall.