Attired in Russian Sokol launch and entry suits, NASA astronaut and Expedition 16 commander Peggy A. Whitson, the station’s first female commander; cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko (center), Soyuz commander and flight engineer representing Russia’s Federal Space Agency; and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor walk from the RSC Energia Assembly and Testing Facility to report their readiness to the Head of the State Commission.
The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at sunset on Oct. 10, 2007, in their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft and docked at to the International Space Station on Oct. 12. Whitson and Malenchenko will spend six months on the station, while Shukor will return to Earth on Oct. 21 with two of the Expedition 15 crewmembers currently on the complex.Photo Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov