English: Soyuz TMA-4 vehicle blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 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 European Space Agency (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.