Joining Whitson are first-time fliers Shubhanshu Shukla from India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The mission brings a return to human spaceflight for these three countries, as in over 40 years the countries have not seen a government-sponsored astronaut.

The International Space Station got more international Thursday morning with the arrival of astronauts from three countries making their first visit to the orbiting laboratory aboard the private