In the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur to begin a 5 ½ month mission on the International Space Station.

In the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency takes a turn at the billiards table May 22 as he, Mikhail Tyurin and Rick Mastracchio of NASA serve as backups to prime Expedition 36/37 crewmembers Karen Nyberg of NASA, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Fyodor Yurchikhin, who are preparing for their launch May 29, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft to begin a 5 ½ month mission on the International Space Station.

NASA/Victor Zelentsov