Soyuz TMA-17M commander Oleg Kononenko, together with flight engineers Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren are set to launch to the International Space Station Wednesday (July 22) at 4:02 p.m. CDT (2102 GMT; 3:02 a.m. local July 22), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
They will dock their Soyuz to the station's Rassvet module at 9:46 p.m. CDT (0246 GMT) following a four-orbit rendezvous.
About two hours later, the hatches between Soyuz TMA-17M and the station will open and Kononenko, Yui and Lindgren will be greeted by ISS Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and yearlong residents Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, who have been on board the orbiting laboratory since late March.
Kononenko, Yui and Lindgren will stay on the space station through late December.
On Monday (July 20), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.