The third stage of a Soyuz booster rocket stands erect in the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Sept. 19.

With the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft nestled inside, the third stage of a Soyuz booster rocket stands erect in the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Sept. 19. The “encapsulation” process set the stage for the third stage of the Soyuz booster to be mated with two other rocket stages Sept. 22 in advance of the rocket’s rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur Sept. 23. Expedition 37/38 Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins of NASA, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy will launch on the Soyuz Sept. 26, Kazakh time, for the start of a five and a half month mission on the International Space Station.

NASA/Victor Zelentsov