nasa astronaut peggy whitson, a cosmonaut, and frenchman thomas pesquet from the european space agency gave their last press conference from behind a glass window before they embark on the proxima mission named for the closest star to the sun. two of the members have already undertaken missions on the iss, but for 38-year-old thomas pesquet, it will be his first time there. >> i still can't believe it. i really need to be sitting in the spacecraft and feel the vibrations of takeoff, and see the earth getting smaller and smaller. and then it will hit me. reporter: pesquet's journey has been seven years in the making, as he told "france 24" earlier this year. >> we did some survival trainings, to survive by ourselves in case we have to wait for the rescue party for a couple days. reporter: this will also be a particularly special mission for peggy whitson. she will become the first woman to command the space station twice. the trio will orbit earth for 2 days inside the spacecraft before finally stopping on the iss on saturday. there they will join three other astronauts. the group will

peggy whitson, oleg novitskiy and thomas pesquet rocketing towards the international space returns to space. peggy whitson joins a crew member from russia and france on a rocket that launched yesterday. they'll now travel for two days before docking at the international space station. whitson -- who's 56 years old -- has now become the oldest woman ever in space -- adding to her long list of records. he in space. this mission covers six months -- which should push her past the u-s record for total time spent in space which is at 534 days right now. back here on earth, the topsy- turvy world of college football takes another turn. three top-five teams lost last weekend -- including michigan upset by iowa. so how would fifth-ranked louisville do last night? the answer -- not very well. houston blew them out. the cougars iowa has a tough challenge at home in men's basketball. the hawkeyes hosting seton hall -- an nc-double-a tournament team that won 25 games a year ago. iowa senior peter jok carrying the hawks -- hitting a three. he had 30 points on the night. iowa led by two at the brea