Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, arrived at the International Space Station on a U.S. Crew Dragon spacecraft Saturday to join Takuya Onishi, also from Japan, who has been aboard the space station since March.
The 11th Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX, carrying Yui and three others, was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday.
The spacecraft was separated from the rocket 10 minutes after the launch and docked with the space station in the early hours of Saturday. The launch was postponed by a day due to bad weather.
Onishi, 49, now in command of the space station, greeted Yui with a high five after the connecting hatch opened about 80 minutes after the docking. They hugged and celebrated their reunion.
At a ceremony held afterward, Onishi welcomed the four astronauts, with Yui expressing his gratitude in English.
This is Yui's second space flight and his first since 2015. He is expected to stay in the space station for about six months.
During the period, he will conduct various experiments in the Japanese module Kibo. He may see the first unit of Japan's new cargo transporter HTV-X, a successor to Kounotori, arrive at the space station.
Onishi is slated to return to Earth aboard the Crew-10 as early as Tuesday.
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