Sunday, November 23, 2014

Italy's first female astronaut off to International Space Station

Crew members: US astronaut Terry Virts (left) Russian cosmonaut
Anton Shkaplerov (centre) and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti

We have lift off! Russian rocket launches to deliver three new crew members to International Space Station - 260 miles above Earth - Daily Mail UK

A Russian rocket blasted off today to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station - including Italy's first female astronaut.

Soyuz TMA-15M, holding incoming station commander Terry Virts, with the US space agency Nasa, left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan.

Also on board for the lift-off at 3am local time (Sunday 9pm GMT) was Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov, with the Russian Federal Space Agency.