English: Backdropped by the blackness of space, the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station (ISS). Onboard the spacecraft are cosmonaut Gennady I. Padalka, Expedition 9 commander representing Russia’s Federal Space Agency; astronaut Edward M. (Mike) Fincke, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer; and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands. The Soyuz linked to the nadir docking port of the Zarya Control Module at 12:01 a.m. (CDT) on April 21, 2004 as the two spacecraft flew 230 miles above central Asia. The docking followed Monday’s launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.