WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 14, 2004, carrying astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA International Space Station (ISS) science officer, cosmonaut Salizhan S. Sharipov, Russia’s Federal Space Agency flight engineer and Soyuz commander, and Russian Space Forces cosmonaut Yuri Shargin to the ISS. The crew will dock to the Station on October 16, and Chiao and Sharipov will replace the current Station crewmembers, cosmonaut Gennady I. Padalka, Expedition 9 commander, and astronaut Edward M. (Mike) Fincke, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, who will return to Earth October 24 with Shargin.