Arriving at Baikonur airport

ISS 26/27 Expedition crewmembers Dmitry Kondratyev, Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, on the tarmac 3 Dec, walking from the TU-134 that brought them from Moscow to the bus that will take them to the quarantine facility where they will be isolated until launch.

Paolo Nespoli, ESA's Italian astronaut, will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on 15 December for a long-duration mission called MagISStra and serve as flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27. This will be the third six-month mission by a European astronaut on the Station.