Expedition 34 Prelaunch photo

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 34/35 backup crewmember Karen Nyberg of NASA looks on during a round of questions from reporters Nov. 27, 2012 and she and her crewmates, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin participated in the first of two days of certification exams. The trio was joined by prime crew members Tom Marshburn of NASA, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, who are preparing for launch Dec. 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft for 5 ½ months on the International Space Station.
NASA/Stephanie Stoll