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The first crew of the International Space Station pose aboard a Black Sea freighter before beginning water survival training recently. From left, they are Soyuz Commander and Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko; International Space Station Commander Bill Shepherd; and Flight Engineer and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. In the background is a mockup of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft descent module used in training. The crew is scheduled to be launched to the new station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in January 1999.