The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 23 November and docked with the International Space Station six hours later, delivering ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her crewmates to the weightless research centre where they will live and work for five months.

With Samantha are Russian Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Terry Virts. All three are part of the Station’s Expedition 42/43 crew.

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