Early Friday morning at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft left its processing facility on a rail car then was vertically set up at its launch pad. On Sunday at 4:52 p.m. EST, three new crew members will launch aboard the TMA-17 to join the Expedition 22 crew after docking to the International Space Station. They dock to the International Space Station Tuesday.

READ: EXPEDITION 22 PRESS KIT

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WATCH VIDEO: EXPEDTION 22 PREFLIGHT CREW NEWS CONFERENCE



NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will expand Expedition 22 to five crew members. Residing onboard the station since Oct. 2 are Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev.

While they wait for the arrival of the rest of the crew, Williams and Suraev continue their normal science, maintenance and exercise activities.

The two orbiting crew members each performed different experiments that measure an astronaut’s performance of various tasks during long-term spaceflight. Williams performed an experiment that studies how the lack of gravity affects concentration, verbal working memory, attention, short-term memory, spatial processing and math skills. Suraev performed tests and games to assess the actual mental state, prediction and correction of quality of professional task performance in a space flight.

Williams set up dosimeters that measure acoustics and the ambient state inside the station. The commander also routed some power cables on the robotics workstation inside Destiny.

Suraev worked in the Russian segment of the station transferring water and inspecting filters. The cosmonaut also reported on his observations of the world's oceans, checking patterns, colors and other characteristics of the water bodies.
 
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