Under leaden skies outside the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 50 crewmember Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency raises the flag of France Nov. 3 during a traditional ceremony. Peggy Whitson of NASA, Oleg Novistkiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Pesquet will launch Nov. 18, Baikonur time, on the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
NASA/Alexander Vysotsky