The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 21:01 GMT/22:01 CET on 23 November 2014 with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her crewmates to the weightless research centre where they will live and work for five months.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.
