Jean-Jacques Dordain during the Russian State Commission

Jean-Jacques Dordain during the Russian State Commission approval meeting on 20 December 2011.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers, ESA astronaut and Don Pettit from NASA, with their backup crew members, met the Russian State Commission, which approved the launch of Soyuz TMA-03M on 21 December from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. Kuipers, Kononenko and Pettit will remain in space for nearly five months as part of the international crew of six aboard the ISS.