Expedition 30 Preflight

Expedition 30 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko, bottom, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit of the U.S., and ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers, top, wave farewell from the base of the Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers launched in their Soyuz TMA-03M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:16 p.m. local time. (Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi)