Expedition 42/43 crew members Terry Virts of NASA, Roscosmos commander Anton Shkaplerov, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti receive the traditional blessing from a Russian Orthodox priest at the Cosmonaut Hotel prior to their launch on the Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 23 November 2014.
On this mission, Samantha is flying as an ESA astronaut for Italy’s ASI space agency under a special agreement between ASI and NASA.