ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, commander Sergei Volkov and Aidyn Aimbetov were launched into space this morning 2 September at 04:37:43 GMT (06:37:43 CEST) from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. br br The launch marks the start of ESA’s 10-day ‘iriss’ mission that will focus on testing new technologies and ways of running complex space missions. br br The astronaut’s Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft was pushed into Earth orbit as planned accelerating 50 kmh on every second for the first nine minutes of their launch.