14 DAY TRIAL // Ahead of its November 7 launch date, the Russian Federal Space Agency's (RosCosmos) Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft has been integrated with its Soyuz FG delivery system, and erected on the 1/5 launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Final launch preparations are currently underway.
The spacecraft will carry RosCosmos' Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata to the International Space Station. The tree are part of the Expedition 38 crew aboard the ISS.
Soyuz TMA-11M will dock to the Russian-built Rassvet port of the ISS about 6 hours after launch, and will remain affixed to the orbital outpost until May 2014. At that time, it will return home with the same crew it left with.
This mission also features a special cargo, the Olympic torch that will be used to light the flames for the opening of the next Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.