1st Belarusian reaches space on ISS-bound Soyuz launch

A rocket launches under a cloudy evening sky above a plume of fire of smoke.

For the first time, a spacecraft has lifted off with a flight attendant aboard, but there will be no drink service during the flight.

Marina Vasilevskaya, who also served as a flight instructor for Belavia Airlines in her home country of Belarus, traded her attendant uniform for a Russian Sokol pressure suit to become the first Belarusian woman to fly into space. On Saturday (March 23), she launched on Russia's Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on a mission to the International Space Station.