Expedition 44 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren and Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and their backups, Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos, Tim Kopra of NASA and Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency participated in traditional ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow on July 10. Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete their training for the launch of Kononenko, Lindgren and Yui to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft on July 23, Kazakh time for a five-month mission.

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