Two Day Ride Ahead For American, Russian, and Japanese 

NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi safely launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Sunday.  Less than 10 minutes after launch, their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays were deployed.  It will take two more days to reach the station before docking.

Creamer, 50, a U.S. Army colonel from Upper Marlboro, Md., will be making his first spaceflight. Kotov, 44, a physician and Russian Air Force colonel, will be making his second spaceflight and serving his second tour aboard the station. Noguchi, 44, an aeronautical engineer from Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, will be making his second spaceflight.

Creamer, Kotov and Noguchi will complete the Expedition 22 crew when they dock to the station on Dec. 22.  They will join Jeff Williams, a NASA astronaut and the station commander, and Max Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut and station flight engineer, who have been living aboard the orbiting laboratory since Oct. 2.

The station's five residents have some busy months ahead. Kotov and Suraev will conduct a planned spacewalk in January from the Pirs airlock, part of the station's Russian segment. Less than a week later, Williams and Suraev will fly the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to the station from its current location on the end of the outpost's Zvezda service module to the new Poisk module. In February, the crew will welcome a Progress unmanned resupply ship and space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission. Endeavour and its crew will deliver the new Tranquility node and its cupola, one of the last major portions of the station to be installed. 

FMI: www.nasa.gov/station