Three new flight engineers to return the International Space Station's resident crew to the full 6-person size traveled from their Russian training base outside Moscow to the Kazakhstan launch site Thursday.

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers are welcomed to Baikonur by Nikolai Zelinchikov of Soyuz spacecraft manufacturer RSC-Energia. Credit: NASA

NASA's Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers made their trip from Star City to the Baikonur Cosmodrome to begin final preparations for liftoff aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M capsule on Dec. 21.

Before the morning departure, the crew shared a commemorative breakfast with other astronauts, cosmonauts and family members.

"This is a breakfast that is done as a celebration for the departing crew as we leave Star City to go to Baikonur," said Pettit.

"This is the last moment in Star City before we go to Baikonur, and it's a very special moment as everyone is together, including our families," Kuipers added.

Their aircraft touched down at Baikonur around 3:05 p.m. local time.

Pettit, 56, previously lived aboard the station for 161 days as the Expedition 6 science officer 8 years ago and flew 16 days on shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission that remodeled the outpost's interior with the life-support equipment needed for larger resident crews. The Oregon native is married with two children and has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona.

Kononenko, 47, also worked aboard the International Space Station during the 199-day Expedition 17 mission in 2008. The Russian cosmonaut is a mechanical engineer who will oversee piloting tasks for the Soyuz spacecraft during the upcoming launch and landing phases of the mission. He is married with two children.

Kuipers, 53, is a European Space Agency astronaut headed back to the International Space Station after flying a brief 11-day mission in 2004 that replaced Soyuz capsules parked at the complex. The doctor was as an officer of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Medical Corps. before eventually becoming an astronaut. Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he is married with four children.

Kononenko leads Pettit and Kuipers from the aircraft after landing at Baikonur. Credit: Roscosmos

The trio will join the current Expedition 30 crew already serving aboard the space station led by commander Dan Burbank of NASA and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin. They docked Nov. 16.

Following launch at 8:16 a.m. EST (1316 GMT) Dec. 21 on the Soyuz rocket, the new crewmembers will reach the station two days later for docking at 10:20 a.m. EST (1520 GMT) Dec. 23.

The Progress resupply ship launch failure back in August and subsequent grounding of the Soyuz rocket interrupted to schedule for rotating crews to the International Space Station. That meant the outpost dropped down to a 3-man crew for an extended period of time when Ron Garan and his cosmonaut team landed on Sept. 16.

Burbank's crew launched Nov. 13 to replace the departing Mike Fossom's team that landed Nov. 21. Now, Pettit's crew is ready to fly in two weeks.

Russian space agency officials say the trio will try on its flight suits Friday and visit the Soyuz TMA-03M capsule for inspections.

There's also time set aside in the coming days for reviewing flight plans, plus traditional activities like planting trees, raising the flags at their hotel and touring the cosmodrome. And there's also relaxation on the agenda.

"Part of it's crew rest -- gives your brain a little break from all the training, but then we continue to do training," said Pettit.

Meanwhile, the space station plans to fire the Zvezda service module's thrusters for 82 seconds Friday in the second of two recent orbit raising maneuvers to position the outpost for rendezvous by the Soyuz. Friday's burn will boost the station's orbital perigee by 2.8 miles, placing the complex into a new orbit of 259.9 x 231.5 miles.

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