An American astronaut, a Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut are headed to the International Space Station after the successful launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan Saturday night.
Sunita Williams, Akihiko Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko will meet the rest of the Expedition 32 crew who are already aboard the ISS -- Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA astronaut and flight engineer Joseph Acaba and Russian flight engineer Sergei Revin.
Williams, a NASA astronaut, will take over as commander on Sept. 17 when Padalka, Acaba and Revin return to Earth. She will be the second woman to command the ISS.
Williams, who has a master's degree from Florida Institute of Technology, is no stranger to space. She went to the ISS in 2006, returning in 2007 on space shuttle Atlantis. She spent a record 195 days in space.
Hoshide, from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Malenchenko, a Russian cosmonaut, will serve as flight engineers during Expeditions 32 and 33.
During an Aug. 16 spacewalk, Padalka and Melenchenko will install an additional micrometeorid and orbital debris shields on the Zvezda service module. They will also move the Strela 2 telescoping boom from the Pirs docking compartment to the Zarya control module.
A spacewalk is also planned for Aug. 30. This time, Williams and Hoshide will replace one of four Main Bus Switching Units (MBSU), which are the primary electrical power routing devices on the space station. If time allows, the astronauts plan to install a debris and thermal cover on the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, which was the primary space shuttle docking port on the end of the Harmony module.
The Soyuz should dock with the ISS Monday night.