From left: Expedition 40/41 Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA, and backup crewmembers Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, after the crew's press conference at the Cosmonaut Hotel, Tuesday 27 May, 2014, in Kazakhstan.
Gerst, Suraev and Wiseman, are ready for launch on 28 May from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft for a five and a half month mission on the International Space Station.
The backup crew will watch their colleagues ascend from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. From then on Terry, Anton and Samantha will focus on their own Expedition 42/43.