A launch day ritual: a blessing

ESA's astronaut Paolo Nespoli and his crewmates during traditional blessing by Russian Orthodox priest at the Cosmonaut Hotel at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 15 December 2010.

Paolo Nespoli was launched in a Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft on 15 December at 20:09 CET with Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman for a challenging 6-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) as members of Expeditions 26/27.

Paolo’s MagISStra mission is Europe’s third long-duration mission on the ISS. Between December 2010 and June 2011 he will be part of the ISS crew as a flight engineer.