This is what three astronauts being launched into space looks like – seen from space. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this timelapse sequence from the International Space Station’s Cupola observatory on 3 December 2018.

Inside the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft were NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques and Roscosmos astronaut and Soyuz commander Oleg Konenenko. The trio blasted into orbit at 11:31 GMT from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked with the International Space Station just six hours later.

Spacecraft are launched after the Space Station flies overhead. This allowed Alexander to set up a camera to take regular pictures at intervals that are played back to create this video.

The rocket leaves behind a trail of exhaust as it gains altitude and passes through the layers of Earth’s atmosphere.