At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 40/41 backup crewmembers Terry Virts of NASA (left), Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (right) pose for pictures in front of a Soyuz simulator May 6 as part of their final qualification exams for flight. They are the backups to the prime crew --- Reid Wiseman of NASA, Max Suraev of Roscosmos and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency --- who are in the final stages of training for launch May 29, Kazakh time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft to spend 5 ½ months on the International Space Station.
NASA/Stephanie Stoll
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