Prime, backup crews ready for ISS mission

Prime and backup crews of Expeditions 37 and 38 to the International Space Station (ISS) have successfully passed their qualifications and are ready for the flight. The Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre told Itar-Tass the interdepartmental commission took this decision on Friday. “The commission has recommended the prime crew of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky as well as NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins for further pre-launch training,” the Centre’s press service said. The backup crew of Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and the U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson have proved their qualifications, too. The comprehensive training qualifications lasted four days when the prime and backup crews had to demonstrate their skills on the mockup Russian segment of the ISS and the mockup piloted booster Soyuz TMA-M. The Soyuz TMA-10M spaceship for manned missions with Kotov, Ryazansky and Hopkins aboard is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur launching pad overnight to September 26, 2013. The mission is due to last 168 days. During the ISS mission the cosmonauts are to make two spacewalks on the Russian work schedule and to make a number of operations with the Russian Progress cargo spaceships and the European ATV. The crew are expected to carry out more than 30 research experiments and to take part in the Olympic Torch Relay.