This Saturday 20 July at 18:28 CEST (16:28 GMT) ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos commander Alexander Skvortsov will be launched to the International Space Station from the Baiknonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

ESA TV will cover all the action from 17:30 CEST (15:30 GMT), screening footage of the crew’s arrival and preparation in Baikonur as well as live launch day activities such as crew suit-up, walk-out and last wave as the trio board the launcher.

Live coverage will be divided into three parts. All times are in CEST as follows:

  • Launch 17:30-18:45 20 July
  • Docking 00:00-01:00 21 July
  • Hatch opening 02:00-03:00 21 July

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The four-orbit, six-hour journey to the International Space Station in the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft will be the second spaceflight for Luca, the third for Alexander and the first for Drew.

It marks the start of Luca’s Beyond mission and, once the trio has been welcomed aboard by current crew members Alexy Ochivin of Roscosmos and Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA, the beginning of Expedition 60.

Regular updates will be provided throughout the day on social media. You can follow the mission on Twitter at @esaspaceflight and in Italian at @ESA_Italia. You can also stay up to date right here on the mission blog at and connect with Luca on Twitter or Facebook.