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Expedition 18 Lifts Off

The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, carrying Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer Yury V. Lonchakov and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, launched Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The three crew members are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on Oct. 14. Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott will return to Earth Oct. 24, 2008, with two of the Expedition 17 crew currently aboard the International Space Station.