WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Expedition 54-55 prime and backup crewmembers pose for pictures Dec. 13 in front of the first stage of the Soyuz booster rocket. From left to right are prime crewmembers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Scott Tingle of NASA and Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and backup crewmembers Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, Jeanette Epps of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency. Kanai, Tingle and Shkaplerov will launch Dec. 17 on the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft for a five month mission on the International Space Station