New York, Jul 28 (IANS): Three new crew members will join the Expedition 52 aboard the International Space Station on Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA said in a statement.

The liftoff of astronauts Randy Bresnik from NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli from ESA (European Space Agency) is scheduled for 3.41 p.m. (9 p.m. IST).

After launching, the trio will travel for six hours in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft before docking to the space station's Rassvet module.

The crew will be welcomed onboard by Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA.

They will spend more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December.

The six crew members of Expedition 52 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and earth science aboard the International Space Station, NASA said.

Live coverage of the docking will begin at 5.15 p.m. on NASA TV.