ESA’s mission control provides another update, written yesterday, two days before launch:

We held our Last Mission Management Team meeting today, where we did a final check of this week’s and next week’s plan as well as the International Space Station and Columbus ground and onboard status. The control centre configuration is now frozen meaning we will make no more changes. Voice and video systems are configured to receive voice and video transmission of Luca’s Soyuz launch. We will follow every step of the launch until Luca arrives at the Space Station and we go back to the normal configuration. Every launch is a special event and we need to pay extra attention that all systems function perfectly.

Launch and docking times are set and the weather in Baikonur is perfect as we count the hours to launch.

The Soyuz launcher is undergoing its final preparations before launch on Tuesday.

Luca’s Soyuz on the launchpad. Credits: ESA

Once the astronauts arrive on Space Station, the first two days are planned differently until the astronauts settle into a regular rhythm.

The crew will enter the International Space Station at around 03:55 GMT on Wednesday morning, have a snack, prepare their ‘beds’ and go to sleep at around 6:00 GMT, the end of a very long day.

Luca and his crewmates will rest a whole day until Thursday 7:30 GMT, after which we will hold our first morning conference to start the new day on the International Space Station.

Although we have done this many times it never is a routine job and having an ESA astronaut onboard is of course always special for us.

…2 days left to launch, and counting….