Rome, November 24 - Samantha Cristoforetti is Italy's first woman astronaut after arriving at the International Space Station.

The 37-year-old blasted off from Kazakstan and rocketed into space aboard the Soyuz spacecraft late on Sunday before docking at the ISS early on Monday.

She is set to complete at six-month mission aboard the space station.

"Everything went fine," Cristoforetti told her mum in her first link from the ISS to mission control in Moscow.

"We saw spectacular images, the dawn and the stars".

Cristoforetti traveled on the Soyuz with two crewmates, Russian Anton Shkaplerov and American Terry W. Virts, who followed her onto the ISS.

"Now Samantha Cristoferetti and her crewmates can enjoy a bit of relaxation," said Luca Parmitano, European Space Agency astronaut and ambassador during the Italian duty presidency of the European Union.

Parmitano provided live commentary for ANSA in streaming during the spacecraft Soyuz's docking at the International Space Station.

Cristoferetti, Shkaplerov and Virts joined three other crewmembers who boarded the ISS in September: Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samoukutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Expedition 42 is made up of these six astronauts who will work together on the ISS until March 2015.

Research during their time in the ISS will include experiments regarding the effects of microgravity on cells as well as three spacewalks.

Virts will become commander in March 2015 when Wilmore, Samoukutyaev and Serova return home.

Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will leave the ISS in May 2015.