Expedition 18 Launch Day

Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yuri V. Lonchakov waves farewell as he and fellow crew members Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott depart the Cosmonaut Hotel for the bus ride to building 254 where the crew will don their spacesuits, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The three crew members are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on Oct. 14. Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott will return to Earth Oct. 24 with two of the Expedition 17 crew members currently on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Victor Zelentsov)