Just two days to launch. The crew is busy with final preparations and the rocket is on the launch pad. Below is a brief schedule of what will happen, when, in the next couple of days:

20 December (T-1)

14:00-15:00 CET (13:00-14:00 UT)
State Commission to give go-ahead for launch

15:00-16:00 CET (14:00-15:00 UT)
Crew press conference from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

21 December (T-0)

01:15 CET (00:15 UT)
State Commission to give go-ahead for tanking

08:15 CET (07:15 UT)
Crew walkout – the crew leaves the Cosmonaut Hotel

10:30 CET (09:30 UT)
Crew suitup in Building 254

11:15 CET (10:15 UT)
Crew departs for the launch pad

11:50 CET (10:50 UT)
Crew boards the Soyuz launcher

14:15:16 CET (13:15:16 UT)
Launch

The launch will be streamed from 13:30 CET (12:30 UT) on the ESA website – details to follow tomorrow.

23 December

16:22 CET (15:22 UT)
Docking of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft with the International Space Station