The seventh crew of the International Space Station lifted off in Soyuz TMA-2 from the Russian Space Agency's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 25, 2003, at 10:54 p.m. CDT. The Soyuz docked on April 28, 2003 and took over command of the ISS. The Expedition Seven crew -- along with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque -- landed back on Earth on October 27, 2003 at Kazakhstan at 9:41 p.m. EST, after undocking from the International Space Station in their Soyuz spacecraft at 6:17 p.m. EST.

From Houston, ISS Spacecraft Communicator Mike Fossum informed Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Science Officer Edward Lu on Wednesday, October 15 of the successful launch of the Long March rocket carrying the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft and Chinese astronaut Yáng Lìwěi. "It's really some exciting news to share. The world's spacefaring nations have been joined by a new member tonight: China."

Malenchenko and Lu were previously crewmates on the STS-106 shuttle mission and did a spacewalk together during that flight.