Expedition 8 Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Michael Foale, Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri and ESA Astronaut Pedro Duque docked the Soyuz TMA-3 with the International Space Station at 3:16 a.m. EDT (0716 GMT) on October 20. At the time of docking, both spacecraft orbited the Earth above Russia.

Once the Expedition 7 crew undocked, Foale and Kaleri settled down to work, beginning a more than six-month stint focused on Station operations and maintenance.

The new Station crew, along with Duque, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:38 a.m. EDT Saturday, October 18 2003.