Expe­di­tion 31 begins with the Soyuz TMA-22 undock­ing in April 2012. Three new crew members

will arrive shortly there­after on Soyuz TMA-04M.

Soyuz TMA-04M    Crew: Joe Acaba, Gen­nady Padalka, Sergei Revin.

Launch: May 14, 2012

“Stand­ing at less than “3” inches tall and weigh­ing no more than the aver­age mobile phone, this chi­huahua puppy could soon qual­ify as the world’s small­est dog. Three-month-old Milly has barely grown since her birth and can perch in the palm of a hand. Now her own­ers believe that her tiny frame could make her a Guin­ness world cham­pion. Milly, from Puerto Rico, weighs a puny 0.37lbs.

Rick San­to­rum isn’t about to allow some Spanish-speaking ter­ri­tory to become America’s 51^st state. San­to­rum mean­while has expressed reser­va­tions, telling reporters that a sim­ple major­ity in the fall ref­er­en­dum wouldn’t nec­es­sar­ily con­vince him that its res­i­dents want to become the 51^st state.

The first coin in 2012 to appear as part of the United States Mint Amer­ica the Beau­ti­ful Quar­ters™ Pro­gram will be the 2012 El Yunque Amer­ica the Beau­ti­ful Quar­ter fea­tur­ing El Yunque National For­est in Puerto Rico. The pro­gram itself started in 2010 and fea­tures five new quar­ters a year, mak­ing this strike the eleventh in the series.