On December 15, 2015 at 11:03 UTC the Russian “Soyuz TMA-19M” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-FG” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 3 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (center); flight-engineer-1, American astronaut Timothy Kopra (right); flight-engineer-2, British astronaut Timothy Peake (left).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station in several hours after lift off. Malenchenko, Kopra and Peake will join current ISS expedition members Volkov, Kornienko and Kelly.