The gantry arms begin to close around the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft to secure the rocket on July 20, 2015 at launch pad 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for July 23 Baikonur time and will carry Expedition 44 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) into orbit to begin their five month mission on the International Space Station.