In late 2007, Kelly was assigned to Expeditions 25 and 26. Kelly lifted off aboard "Soyuz TMA-01M" from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 pm EDT on October 7, 2010 along with cosmonauts Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. TMA-01M was the first launch of an updated model of the "Soyuz" spacecraft, and featured improved guidance, environmental control, and flight-control systems. Kelly, Kaleri, and Skripochka arrived at the ISS on October 9, 2010, and joined Commander Douglas H. Wheelock and flight engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin on Expedition 25.