Expedition 56 Preflight

Expedition 56 flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, and flight engineer Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) receive a blessing from a Russian Orthodox Priest at the Cosmonaut Hotel prior to departing the hotel for launch on a Soyuz rocket, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Auñón-Chancellor, Prokopyev, and Gerst will launch in their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft to the International Space Station to being a six month mission. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)