Paolo Nespoli arriving at the Space Station

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli arrived as the International Space Station with Soyuz commander Dmitri Kondratyev and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman and joined there ISS Expedition 26 crew Alexander Kaleri, Scott Kelly and Oleg Skripochka on 18 December at 00:05 CET, when the hatches between the International Space Station and Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft were opened.

They were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 15 December at 20:09 CET. Paolo’s MagISStra mission will be 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.