Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson are protected behind glass during the State Commission meeting at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian Spaceflight Participant Sheikh Muszhaphar Shukor are protected behind glass during the State Commission meeting and Press Conference Oct. 09, 2007 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew is in preparation for their launch to the International Space Station Oct. 10 in their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft. Whitson and Malenchenko will spend six months on the station while Shukor will return to Earth Oct. 21 with two of the Expedition 15 crewmembers currently on the complex. Photo Credit: "NASA/Bill Ingalls"