Expedition 42/43 Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Terry Virts and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and their backups, Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Kjell Lindgren of NASA and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency participated in traditional ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow on Nov. 11. Afterward, the prime crew departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the backup crew departed a day later, to complete their training for the launch of Shkaplerov, Virts and Cristoforetti to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft on Nov. 24, Kazakh time.
