The crew was launched at 7:16 a.m. EDT Tuesday from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Expedition 17 crewmembers Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi, will dock with the space station Thursday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said..

Yi, from South Korea, will be aboard the ISS for nine days, conducting experiments and Earth photography. She is scheduled to return to Earth with Expedition 16 crew members Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko April 19.