Expedition 16 Preflight

Expedition 16 backup Commander Michael Fincke, right, photographs Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko, left, shortly before they and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. Their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft will dock to the International Space Station on Oct. 12. 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)