New Crew Arrives at the International Space Station [VIDEO]

Three new crew members were welcomed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday shortly after midnight following a successful launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz capsule carrying the two Russians and one American took off Wednesday afternoon and docked with the ISS almost exactly six hours later, having performed four orbits around Earth.

Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins and Sergey Ryazanskiy were greeted by current crew members two hours after docking. The three newcomers are set to spend nearly six months aboard the ISS before returning home in March of next year.

Kotov is the most experienced of the trio with the current mission marking his third aboard the orbiting space lab. Previously, he served as a flight engineer for Expedition 15 in 2007 and later as commander in 2010 for Expedition 23.

For Hopkins and Ryazanskiy, the mission marks their first time in space.

Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano have been aboard the space station since May 28.

During this time they have overseen the arrival of two international resupply ships and one commercial cargo craft. Since the beginning of their mission, Yurchikhin has performed three spacewalks and Parmitano two.

Among the tasks to be carried out by the new crew members include taking the Olympic torch into open space in November ahead of the 2014 Winter Games.

According to The Associated Press, all three held a chat via a video-link with their families soon after arriving aboard the ISS.

"It was a pretty good ride, mom. It was a lot of fun," Hopkins said in the live broadcast on NASA TV.

Hopkins' mother, on the other hand, called the launch "heart-stopping."