Air Force pilot Col. Jack Fischer arrived at the International Space Station Thursday morning after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Fischer, along with Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, blasted off in their Soyuz spacecraft at 3:13 a.m. EDT, and docked about five hours later at 9:18 a.m.

Over the next four-and-a-half to six months, Fischer, Yurchikhin, and the other astronauts aboard the space station will conduct about 300 experiments on subjects such as creating lighter and stronger alloys, new medicines, and testing new technologies for exploration.


jack fisher 3

Expedition 51 Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, bottom and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA, top, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft for launch, Thursday, April 20, 2017 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Yurchikhin and Fischer will spend the next four and a half months aboard the International Space Station.
Photo Credit: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA

Fischer, who has test-flown F-22s and flown F-15s in combat above Iraq and Afghanistan, was saluted by Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein, who tweeted a NASA video of the launch and said "Godspeed @Astro2fish [Fischer's Twitter handle] & Fyodor Yurchikhin. May your mission be successful."

And on Monday, President Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, will call the space station to speak to astronaut and space station Commander Peggy Whitson, as well as Fischer. That day, Whitson will break the American record for most cumulative days in space. The previous record of 534 days was held by astronaut Jeff Williams. Whitson, who has been on the space station since Nov. 19, is also the first woman to command the space station twice, and has conducted the most spacewalks of any female astronaut.

Fischer will be sharing his experiences aboard the station on Twitter, Facebookand

Instagram

.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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