Soyuz TMA-05M/31S launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Akihito Hoshide from Japan aboard.
Williams will take over as ISS commander when the current crew returns in mid September.
Between now and that departure, the three (soon-to-be six)-person crew will preside over the following dockings and other events (dates in US format):
07/17/12 -- Soyuz TMA-05M/31S docking -- ~12:50am EDT
07/18/12 -- ATV/ISS reboost (the ISS' orbit slowly decays due to a variety of external factors and thus needs the occasional push to raise it)
07/22/12 -- Progress M-15M/47P undock #1 ~4:22pm EDT (cargo vessel Progress M-15M docked with the ISS on April 22nd)
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07/27/12 -- HTV3 docking (the HTV series are cargo rockets launched by JAXA - the Japanese space agency; HTV3 will be launched on July 20th)
07/30/12 -- Progress M-15M/47P undocking #2 ~2:11pm EDT (this time, the Progress will leave permanently. Loaded with garbage, it will burn up over the Pacific)
08/02/12 -- Progress M-16M/48P docking [4-orbit RDVZ] ~9:24pm EDT (the typical 2-day catch-up for the Progress cargo vessels is to be shortened to just 4 orbits as a test flight).
08/16/12 -- Russian EVA-31 (Russian Cosmonauts Gennardy Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko will attach 5 protective shields to the Zvezda Module and the relocation of Strela 2 Boom from the Pirs Module to the Zarya Module. There are two boons that must be moved prior to the installation of a new Russian Research Module in 2013.)
08/30/12 -- US EVA-18 (The US and Japanese members of the just-launched Soyuz will be dedicated to external maintenance of the ISS
09/06/12 -- HTV3 undocking (the Japanese cargo vessel will burn up in the atmosphere)
09/17/12 -- Soyuz TMA-04M/30S undock/landing (Current crew-members Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin will return to Earth)
The arriving crew of Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return to Earth on November 12th.
