A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Italy's first female astronaut blasted off Sunday to begin its journey to the International Space Station.
Samantha Cristoforetti was joined by Russian cosmonaut Anton Chkaplerov and American astronaut Terry Kirts as the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft took off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2101 GMT, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement.