Expedition 11 Arrival

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev, center, Flight Engineer John Phillips, left, and European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori, of Italy, answer questions from the media prior to their departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center training base, Saturday, April 9, 2005, in Star City, Russia. The trio traveled to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final pre-launch preparations. Krikalev, Phillips and Vittori will launch April 15 on a Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft to the International Space Station. Krikalev and Phillips will spend six months in space and greet the first Shuttle crew to fly in more than two years when it arrives at the Station, while Vittori spends eight days on the Station under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)