English: JSC2008-E-032794 (8 April 2008) --- At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov (center), Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko (right) and South Korean spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi bid farewell to Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency on April 8, 2008, prior to heading to the launch pad for their liftoff on the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft to the International Space Station. Volkov and Kononenko will spend six months on the station, while Yi will spend nine days on the complex under a commercial agreement between South Korea and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Photo Credit: NASA /Victor Zelentsov