Innovative journey 30 team Members open to Station

The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft transport three new Expedition 30 journey engineers’ launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Don Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuipers launched at 8:16 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 21 (7:16 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The three new global Space Station crew members launch in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft start a two-day trip to the orbiting settlement.

They are put to dock to the station's Rassvet mini-research module about 10:22 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 23. Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will welcome their original crewmates on board the station a little while later at what time they open the hatches about 1 p.m.

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers are planned to live and work aboard the orbit laboratory until May. They will become member of the Expedition 31 crew under the authority of Kononenko when Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin undock in their Soyuz TMA-22 spaceship in March.