Expedition 56 Preflight

Expedition 56 backup crew members Anne McClain of NASA, left, Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, center, and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, right, are seen as they watch prime crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, and Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) talk with family and friends after having their Russian Sokol suits pressure checked in preparation for launch aboard the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Auñón-Chancellor, Prokopyev, and Gerst launched aboard the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft at 7:12am EDT (5:12pm Baikonur time) on June 6 to begin their journey to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Victor Zelentsov)