The crew comprises Russia's Yury Malenchenko, NASA's Peggy Whitson, and Malaysia's Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. The southeast Asian astronaut will spend 10 days at the ISS, the return to Earth with the Russian members of the previous expedition - Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.
Malenchenko and Whitson will be joined later at the ISS by a new flight engineer, U.S. national Daniel Tani, arriving with the Discovery STS-120 mission, scheduled for launch on October 20.
Whitson is set to become the first female commander of an ISS expedition. She will spend around six months in space.
Members of the expedition will carry out 48 experiments, including a study of human cardiovascular activity and sleep functions, as well as research into the growth and development of plants in the absence of gravity, earth remote sensing, and a series of biotechnological experiments.
Russia and Malaysia concluded a $900 million deal in 2003, stipulating that Malaysia would buy 18 Russian Su-30MKM Flanker fighters and that Russia would take a Malaysian astronaut to the ISS.
The Malaysian science and technology minister said on Friday that Malaysia would put a second astronaut into space within the next few years.
Jamaludin Jarjis said his country is currently in negotiations with Russia on sending Faiz bin Halid, Shukor's backup, on a space mission in the foreseeable future.
