Soyuz TMA-11 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome

The three crew members are NASA astronaut Richard (Rick) Mastracchio, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. They are bringing with them the Olympic Torch, which will be returned to Earth on November 10 by a departing ISS crew (Nyberg, Parmitano, Yurchikhin).

Further in-space rendezvous and docking of "Soyuz TMA-11M " to the International Space Station (ISS) will be made at the expense of the spacecraft's propulsion system.

Expedition 38 commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazansky will carry the torch with them on their outing, during which video and photographs will document the Olympic icon floating above the Earth.

The torch will then be brought back inside and returned to Earth on Sunday (Nov. 10), landing on board Soyuz TMA-09M with Yurchikhin, Nyberg, Parmitano.