Expedition 11 Preflight images

JSC2005-E-16317 (15 April 2005) --- Astronaut John L. Phillips, Expedition 11 NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, blows a kiss goodbye to his family as the Expedition 11 crew boards the bus that will take them to the launch pad. Cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev, commander representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; Phillips; and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a two-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch occurred at daybreak on April 15, 2005 (Kazakhstan time). Krikalev and Phillips will spend six months on the Station, replacing Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, while Vittori will spend eight days on the ISS under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, returning to Earth with Chiao and Sharipov on April 25. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls