NASA astronaut Jonny Kim successfully launched this morning to the International Space Station with two Russian cosmonauts.

Euronews reports the trio of Kim, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, took off at 1:47 a.m. Eastern Time and arrived at the International Space Station 3 hours and 10 minutes later.

The Soyuz MS-27 launched from a facility in Kazakhstan and docked with the space station where the three are scheduled to stay for eight months.

Kim is the first Korean American to journey into space. The Chosun Daily reports the son of Korean immigrants had a tough childhood but grew up to become a Navy SEAL, a doctor and astronaut.

The Silver Star awardee graduated from UC San Diego before doing his graduate work at Harvard to study medicine.

“Just to have a small contribution in that is really meaningful for me,” he said last month about his scheduled launch. He described himself as “a huge believer in public service.”

While in space, Kim is expected to conduct investigations and demonstrations to lay the groundwork for future space missions.

Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will work with NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Kirill Peskov at the space outpost.

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