Today, a three-crew team of international astronauts safely rocketed toward the International Space Station. After a brief delay due to weather, their Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:02pm Eastern time, successfully discarding the three stages of its engine on its way into orbit. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui join astronauts American Scott Kelly, Russian Gennada Padalka, and Russian Mikhail Kornienko aboard the space station.

Launching into space is never exactly relaxing, but tensions must have been particularly high for this set of new crew members. Their mission should have launched in May, but it was delayed while Russia investigated the failure of one of its Progress cargo missions, also powered by a Soyuz rocket. And three weeks ago, SpaceX's unmanned Dragon 9 rocket exploded less than three minutes into its flight, making it the third failed launch to the ISS in less than a year.

Once the rocket made it safely into orbit about 10 minutes into flight—marked by the release of an R2D2 figurine, floating gently around the now low-gravity cockpit—first-time flyers Yui and Lindgren shared a triumphant (and probably relieved) fist-bump. After a 5 hour, 43 minute flight, they'll dock with the ISS and begin their normal duties. Welcome to space!