Launch of Expedition 11

JSC2005-E-16325 (15 April 2005) --- The Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at daybreak on April 15, 2005 (Kazakhstan time), carrying cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev, Expedition 11 commander representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; astronaut John L. Phillips, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer; and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy for a two-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS). Krikalev and Phillips will spend six months on the Station, replacing Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, while Vittori will spend eight days on the ISS under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, returning to Earth with Chiao and Sharipov on April 25. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls