On March 25, 2014 at 21:17 UTC (on March 26 at 01:17 Moscow time) the Russian “Soyuz TMA-12M” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-FG” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 3 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov (center); flight-engineer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev (right); American astronaut Steven Swanson (left).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center. The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station on March 28. Skvortsov, Artemjev and Swanson will join current ISS expedition members Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata.