Samantha Cristoforetti greeting audience at the launch pad

Expedition 42/43 ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, Terry Virts of NASA and Roscosmos commander Anton Shkaplerov greeting audience at the launch pad, just before entering elevator transporting the crew up to the top of the Soyuz rocket, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 23 November 2014.

On this mission, Samantha is flying as an ESA astronaut for Italy’s ASI space agency under a special agreement between ASI and NASA.