Soyuz TMA-11 launched on 10 October at 13:22:39 UTC/11:22:39 p.m. Melbourne time with Expedition 16 and the Malaysian guest cosmonaut on board. It docked on 12/10 at 14:50:05 UTC.
Depressing thread at CollectSpace on why there are currently no women cosmonauts (aside from the one currently in training, who might never make it into space). Quite a lot of men in the Russian space program deserve a punch in the nose – their attitude towards women just sucks. The Americans have now had female Shuttle commanders, and Peggy Whitson will be the first female ISS commander, and there is no questioning their competence. So why do Russian men have this archaic attitude that women are weak and inferior (“Does Mars need women? Russians say no”)? This attitude pisses me off in the extreme and is one reason I am disillusioned with their program (the other being the focus on space tourism at the expense of exploration – though they don’t seem to have a problem with flying paying foreign female space tourists).
(On the Wikipedia “History of Women in the Military” page is a mention of military women in Russia. Women fought well in combat in World War 2. But I was disgusted to read: “Today, the Russian army runs the Miss Russian Army beauty contest for attractive female Russian soldiers. Colonel Gennady Dzyuba, of the Defense Ministry, said of the 2005 contest that ‘Those who have served, especially in hot spots, know the importance of women in the armed forces.’ ” Beauty contest?! WTF is with that bullsh*t?? No wonder women aren’t regarded seriously!)
“Space Station: Internal NASA Reports Explain Origins of June Computer Crisis”, James Oberg, IEEE Spectrum October 2007.
