WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Joined by a local official in the town of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 59 backup crew members Drew Morgan of NASA, Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency participate in ceremonies at the statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space, as part of traditional pre-launch activities Feb. 28. They are the backups to Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, who will launch March 14, U.S. time, in the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station.