Expedition 16 Launch

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at sunset, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007 in their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft. They will dock with the International Space Station on October 12. Whitson and Malenchenko will spend six months on the station, while Shukor will return to Earth October 21 with two of the Expedition 15 crewmembers currently on the complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)