Crew greeting audience at the launch pad

Soyuz TMA-20 crew greeting audience at the launch pad, just before entering elevator transporting them up to the Souyz TMA-20 spacecraft.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli was launched on 15 December 2010 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 20:09 CET with Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman for a six-month mission on the International Space Station as members of Expeditions 26/27.

Paolo’s MagISStra mission was Europe’s third long-duration mission on the Space Station.