ملف:Soyuz TMA-4 launch.jpg

The Soyuz TMA-4 vehicle blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, April 19, 2004, carrying cosmonaut Gennady I. Padalka, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Expedition 9 mission commander; astronaut Edward M. (Mike) Fincke, NASA International Space Station (ISS) science officer and flight engineer; and ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands to the ISS. Padalka and Fincke will spend six months on the ISS, replacing the Expedition 8 crew, which has been aboard the Station since October 20, 2003. Kuipers, who is flying under a commercial contract between ESA and Russia’s Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth with the Expedition 8 crew on April 30, 2004.