ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet greeting audience at the launch pad, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 17 November 2016.
Thomas Pesquet will leave for the International Space Station from Baikonur cosmodrome at 20:20 GMT (21:20 CET) with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).
Follow Thomas via thomaspesquet.esa.int and check out the mission blog for updates.