WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Behind the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 42/43 crewmembers Terry Virts of NASA (left), Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (right) clasp hands as they pose for pictures Nov. 18 near the end of their pre-flight training. Virts, Cristoforetti and Shkaplerov will launch Nov. 24, Kazakh time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft for a 5 ½ month mission on the International Space Station.