The Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft was transported by rail car to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Oct. 8, 2007 for launch Oct. 10 to carry NASA astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, Expedition 16 commander; cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, Soyuz commander and flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor to the International Space Station. Whitson and Malenchenko will spend six months on the station. Shukor, who is flying under an agreement between Malaysia and the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth Oct. 21 with two of the Expedition 15 crewmembers currently on the complex.
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