On March 18, 2016 at 21:26 UTC (on March 19 at 00:26 Moscow time) the Russian “Soyuz TMA-20M” 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 Aleksey Ovchinin (center); Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka (right) and American astronaut Jeffrey Williams (left).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

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