Expedition 17 Patch

Commander Sergei Alexandrovich Volkov and cosmonaut Oleg Dmitrievich Kononenko of the 17th International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-12 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:16 a.m. EDT Tuesday to begin a six-month stay in space. Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit, and its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterwards. With Volkov, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian Air Force, and Kononenko is spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi. She is a South Korean flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. Yi will return to Earth with Expedition 16 crew members, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko in their Soyuz TMA-11 on April 19. Expedition 16 launched to the station Oct. 10. Expedition 17 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 16 crew, including astronaut Garrett Reisman, after their docking to the orbiting laboratory, scheduled for Thursday. Reisman launched to the station