Shane Kimbrough, a West Point and Georgia Tech graduate, will be setting foot in the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday.  He was launched on Wednesday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket and spacecraft along with two Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.

It would take approximately two days to chase down the International Space Station. The arrival of the astronauts is awaited by three ISS crew members including Kate Rubins of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Kimbrough waved to the onboard camera and showed the thumb sign along the way. Shane, who earlier had a brief stay on the ISS during Endeavours' 16-day mission in 2008, is expected to again perform two space walks. However, this time his tenure is going to last for about four to five months in the laboratory complex and orbiting 250 miles up. Apart from the two spacewalks, Shane is also expected to conduct some social experiments.

Kimbrough is already missing his wife and his three children back in Houston, Texas. His son is in high school, and his twin daughters are in their freshman year of college. Kimbrough said he is also missing his grandparents especially his grandfather.  

During his time there, Shane would also become the commander of the outpost's six-person Expedition 50 crew.

Kimbrough noted that a lot of experiments would be done on the bodies of the crew members. Some of these experiments are focussed on other exploration missions like the Mars exploration project.

Georgia Tech has so far produced 14 astronauts, a joint second-most among public universities.