NASA International Space Station Expedition 14 Patch

The is the emblem of International Space Station Expedition 14.

Shown at the right is European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter who joined Expedition 13 during the mission of STS-121 in July 2006. He is the first European Space Agency astronaut to serve as a long-duration International Space Station crew member. Reiter, who served as a crew member on the Russian space station Mir for six months in 1995, is scheduled to return to Earth aboard Discovery on STS-116 in December.

A Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft docked the International Space Station September 20, 2006 and delivered the first of the Expedition 14 crew astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, flight engineer. With them was American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, flying under a commercial agreement with the Russian Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria, 45, is making his fourth flight into space. He flew three space shuttle missions. On Expedition 14, he also will serve as NASA science officer.

Tyurin, 46, is making his second spaceflight. He served as a member of the station's Expedition 3 crew in 2001, which launched in August and landed in December.

Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, will join Expedition 14 in progress and serve as a flight engineer after traveling to the station on space shuttle mission STS-116 in December. Williams, 41, a Navy commander, will be making her first spaceflight. She is scheduled to remain on the station until next spring.

Below: Attired in Russian Sokol launch and entry suits, astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria (right), Expedition 14 commander and NASA space station science officer; cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin (center), flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari (left). The photo was taken at Star City, Russia during cosmonaut training.

Right: The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan September 18, 2006 carrying a new crew to the International Space Station.