At the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 48-49 backup crewmember Peggy Whitson of NASA waters a tree in her name first planted in 2007 during traditional pre-launch activities June 30. Whitson is one of three backups to the prime crewmembers, Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who will launch July 7, Baikonur time, on the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft for a planned four-month mission on the International Space Station...NASA/Alexander Vysotsky.

2016-06-30