Expedition 16 Preflight

The Russian Sokol suits of Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor are laid out prior to suit-up by the crew, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko was the first to don his flight suit. The three crew members launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at sunset in their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft bound for a docking to the International Space Station on Oct. 12. Whitson and Malenchenko will spend six months on the station, while Shukor will return to Earth Oct. 21 with two of the Expedition 15 crewmembers currently on the complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)