ISS Expedition 46 crew launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz rocket on 15th December 2015. On board are British astronaut Timothy Peake (born 1972), the first British citizen to be chosen as an astronaut by the European Space Agency (ESA), American NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra (born 1963), and Russian cosmonaut and mission commander Yuri Malenchenko (born 1961). The launch and subsequent docking with the International Space Station (ISS) were successful. The crew will stay on the ISS until May 2016 undertaking experiments on changes to the human body in space, and the survival of microorganisms in space, amongst others.