ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano was launched to the International Space Station alongside NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos commander Alexander Skvortsov on Saturday 20 July 2019 in the Russian Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft.

This clip shows the liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The trio’s launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing and marks the start of Luca’s second space mission ‘Beyond’.

During the Beyond mission, Luca will support over 50 European experiments that investigate everything from how our bodies behave in microgravity, to whether microbes could be used to biomine minerals on other planets and how astronauts might interact with robots during future missions to the Moon and Mars.

In the second part of his mission, known as Expedition 61, he will become Space Station commander. Luca is the first Italian and third European ever appointed to this role, after ESA astronauts Alexander Gerst in 2018 and Frank De Winne in 2009.

Follow Luca and the Beyond mission via http://lucaparmitano.esa.int/ and visit the blog for regular updates.