The four U.S., Russian and Japanese astronauts pulled up in their SpaceX capsule after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. They will spend at least six months at the orbiting lab, swapping places with colleagues up there since March. SpaceX will bring those four back as early as Wednesday.

The arrival of Crew 11 clears the way for four other station fliers to return to Earth next week after a 145-day stay in space.

The fresh crew includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos.