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The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov returned after spending six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-22 rocket is launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos onboard, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in March 2023. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
This unnamed crater on Mars is filled with material of a ‘wrinkled’ appearance. This texture usually implies that material once flowed here, and likely comprised a mixing of rocks, ice or frost, and other soil deposits. The wrinkles seem to have formed in parallel layers which is consistent with material settling onto the crater floor, perhaps in different episodes. Volatiles such as water ice could still be mixed with the rocky sediments to create the observed texture.
The image was captured by the CaSSIS camera onboard the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on 3 July 2019. The image is centred at 35ºN/169.5ºE. North is up.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome after it was blessed by an Orthodox priest on Thursday, March 17, 2016 in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for March 19 Baikonur time and will carry Expedition 47 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA, and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
nhq201611140019 (Nov. 14, 2016) --- The Soyuz launch pad is seen ahead of the Soyuz rocket being rolled out by train at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of November 18 (Kazakh time.) All three will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
nhq201512150014 (12/15/2015) --- The Soyuz TMA-19M rocket is launched with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency), Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Malenchenko, Kopra, and Peake will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 48-49 crewmembers Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) onboard, Thursday, July 7, 2016 , Kazakh time (July 6 Eastern time), Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Rubins, Ivanishin, and Onishi will spend approximately four months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in October. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
In this one second exposure photograph, the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft is seen launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 50 crewmembers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, (Kazakh time) (Nov 17 Eastern time). Whitson, Novitskiy, and Pesquet will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Russian MI-8 helicopter personnel secure their helicopter after arriving at Zhezkazgan Airport in Kazakhstan Tuesday, March 1, 2016, ahead of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft landing with Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos. Kelly and Kornienko are completing an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov is returning after six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 50 crewmembers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, (Kazakh time) (Nov 17 Eastern time). Whitson, Novitskiy, and Pesquet will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
iss069e003171 (April 13, 2023) --- Three Roscosmos components on the International Space Station were photographed by UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi while orbiting 263 miles above a partly cloudy northern Europe. At left, from top to bottom, are the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module's forward port, the Prichal docking module, and the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship.
The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft landing site is seen through the window of an arriving Russian MI-8 helicopter after Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos landed in their capsule near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov returned after spending six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
nhq201611140039 (Nov. 14, 2016) --- The Soyuz rocket is seen after being rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of November 18 (Kazakh time.) All three will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Victor Zelentsov)
The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 48 crew members NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The gantry arms close around the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft to secure the rocket, as seen in this long exposure photograph taken on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at launch pad 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for March 19 and will carry Expedition 47 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA, and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 73 crew members: NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy, onboard, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, left, Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos center, and Tim Kopra of NASA sit in chairs outside the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft just minutes after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-02 rocket is launched with Expedition 49 Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and flight engineer Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ryzhikov, Kimbrough, and Borisenko will spend the next four months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The Soyuz MS-08 rocket launched with Expedition 55 Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, Wednesday, March 21, 2018, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Artemyev, Arnold and Feustel will spend the next five months living and working aboard the International Space Station.
The trio will orbit Earth for approximately two days before docking to the space station’s Rassvet module at 3:41 p.m. Friday, March 23. Coverage of docking will begin at 3 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed at 5 p.m. by coverage of the opening of hatches between the spacecraft and station.
Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Last Sunday night a long, heavy truck hit the road escorted from Italy with a precious cargo. While most of the citizens in Turin prepared to enjoy their dinner, several modules of the ExoMars spacecraft left the Thales Alenia Space facilities. Next stop: Cannes, France.
The journey took less than a day. Besides stringent controls in dedicated clean rooms and tents – amongst the cleanest places on Earth – to avoid any biological contamination from Earth to Mars, Russian and European teams took a number of precautionary measures to minimise the risk of spreading the Coronavirus.
Workers remained fully shrouded within ‘bunny suits’ to control any kind of contamination during the packing of the ExoMars elements before shipment. In this image, two engineers work on ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover with its solar panels and drill folded.
The white capsule with golden legs in the background corresponds to the carrier module integrated with the Russian surface platform, dubbed Kazachok. These two elements will reunite with the rover in Cannes at the end of October.
The microbiological samples taken after rigorous cleanliness procedures showed that the contamination levels were within the requirements for a safe landing on Mars.
Engineers will be busy with a series of tests in the next months. The whole spacecraft will undergo thermal, vacuum and acoustic tests during the next months in France. Coming up is the deployment of the solar panels that will power up the Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars.
Teleworking is nothing new to the ExoMars spacecraft and teams. There will be some remote operations in France before the year ends. Rosalind Franklin will be commanded from the Rover Operations Control Centre (ROCC) at the ALTEC premises in Turin, Italy, to rehearse cruise and deployment manoeuvres once on the surface of Mars.
ExoMars leaves behind an intense period of testing in Italy since April, from health checks to assembly, maintenance operations and leak tests. Fasteners have been added to the solar panels of the rover to increase robustness during the unfolding and surface operations on the Red Planet.
Rosalind Franklin is fitted with a drill – a first in Mars exploration – to extract samples down to a maximum of two metres, where ancient biomarkers may still be preserved from the harsh radiation on the surface, and hosts a sophisticated laboratory to analyse the samples on Mars.
Both drill and laboratory have been extensively tested using soil similar to that expected on Mars and under conditions representative of the martian environment.
The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Russian State Space Corporation, Roscosmos.
Credits: Thales Alenia Space
Russian Search and Recovery Forces move helicopters and support teams from Karaganda to Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan Tuesday, March 1, 2016 in preparation for the March 2 Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft landing with Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos. Kelly and Kornienko are completing an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov is returning after six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
iss066e119955 (Jan. 19, 2022) --- Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 66 Commander Anton Shkaplerov (upper right) works outside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module during a spacewalk that lasted seven hours and 11 minutes. Attached to Nauka at the bottom, is the Prichal docking module that was configured and activated during the spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov (out of frame).
NASA astronaut Chris Williams, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, safely arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, November 27, expanding the orbiting laboratory’s crew to 10 for the next two weeks.
The trio launched aboard the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft at 4:27 a.m. EST (2:27 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After a three-hour, two-orbit journey, the spacecraft docked at 7:34 a.m. to the space station’s Rassvet module.
In this image, the Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 74 crew members: NASA astronaut Chris Williams, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 46-47 crewmember Tim Peake of the European Space Agency suits up during a fit check dress rehearsal 1 December. Peake, Tim Kopra of NASA and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch 15 December from Baikonur in the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
My highlight of the month bringing cosmonauts that flew on with N280PH, a Gulfstream 5, to Houston-Ellington (NASA I presume!). Note the appropriate 'Cosmonaut Training Center' titles.
Roscosmos is the state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research.
The plane is named 'Sergei Korolev', after the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer who was the driving force behind Soviet accomplishments in space exploration.
The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen at the launch pad after being rolled out by train in the early hours of Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Operations to raise the rocket were delayed due to high winds. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for March 19 and will carry Expedition 47 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA, and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
nhq201611140020 (Nov. 14, 2016) --- The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of November 18 (Kazakh time.) All three will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 48-49 crewmembers Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) onboard, Thursday, July 7, 2016 , Kazakh time (July 6 Eastern time), Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Rubins, Ivanishin, and Onishi will spend approximately four months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in October. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft is raised vertical after it was rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 4, 2016. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of July 7, Kazakh time (July 6 Eastern time.) All three will spend approximately four months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in October. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Support personnel wait at a helicopter for the arrival of astronaut Tim Peake of the European Space Agency shortly after he, Tim Kopra of NASA, and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos landed in their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 75 crewmembers: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, and Anna Kikina onboard, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-07 rocket is launched with Expedition 54 Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Scott Tingle of NASA, and flight engineer Norishige Kanai of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Shkaplerov, Tingle, and Kanai will spend the next five months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
This composite image made from 18 frames shows the Soyuz rocket as it launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 75 crewmembers: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, and Anna Kikina onboard, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 50 crewmembers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, (Kazakh time) (Nov 17 Eastern time). Whitson, Novitskiy, and Pesquet will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Three crew members, including NASA astronauts Drew Feusteland Ricky Arnold, are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 21, 2018 (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time). The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Feustal, Arnold and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos is scheduled to dock to the space station’s Rassvet module at 3:41 p.m. Friday, March 23.
The arrival of Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev will restore the station's crew complement to six. They will join Scott Tingle of NASA, Expedition 55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The crew members will spend more than five months conducting about 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.
Image credit: NASA Television
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 48-49 crewmembers Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) onboard, Thursday, July 7, 2016 , Kazakh time (July 6 Eastern time), Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Rubins, Ivanishin, and Onishi will spend approximately four months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in October. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
This colourful image from the CaSSIS camera onboard the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter shows an area within Oyama Crater, which is near Mawrth Vallis on Mars.
The lighter tones are probably related to clay minerals that have been identified across the region by the OMEGA instrument on ESA’s Mars Express and by the CRISM instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The CaSSIS data has higher spatial resolution and, in combination with the spectrometer, can help look at spatial relationships between the different mineral species. This image is particularly interesting because of the distinct layers exposed in the walls of small crater at the top of the image, giving us a window back in time. Areas like these are frequently ranked highly as potential landing sites for missions because of the influence of water and as such their potential for preservation of traces of past life.
The image is centred at 23.4ºN/340ºE. North is up. The image was taken on 13 June 2019.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover is seen here sitting on top of the Kazachok surface science platform in stowed configuration, rather similar to how it will journey to Mars in 2022.
The duo were mated in a dedicated clean room at Thales Alenia Space (TAS), Cannes, together forming the so-called ‘landing module’. The latest round of tests include electrical, power and data transfer checks between the two elements.
The landing module will later be integrated inside the descent module for mass balancing checks, together with the carrier module that will transport the mission to Mars.
This is not the last time the two flight models will be mated. After completion of the tests in Cannes, the rover will return to the TAS cleanrooms in Turin, Italy, for further functional testing, before being shipped to the launch site in Baikonur.
In this image, two of the landing platform’s ramps are deployed and one of the solar panels is partially deployed (front left). There are ramps on both sides of the platform; after assessing the area for potential hazards, the rover team can choose to drive Rosalind Franklin forwards or backwards down either of the two ramps to begin its scientific exploration of Mars.
The mission is targeting a September 2022 launch window, landing on Mars in June 2023. Its goal is to determine the geological history of the landing site at Oxia Planum, once thought to host an ancient ocean, and to determine if life could ever have existed on Mars.
The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Russian State Space Corporation, Roscosmos.
The integration activities at Cannes were carried out by Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space teams.
Credits: Thales Alenia Space
The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 63 crew members Chris Cassidy of NASA, and Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos, Thursday, October 22, 2020, Kazakh time (Oct. 21 Eastern time). Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner returned after 196 days in space having served as Expedition 62-63 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Denis Derevtsov)
A view of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square is seen through the front window of the bus carrying Expedition 47 crew members: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, as the crew arrives to lay roses at the site where Russian space icons are interred as part of traditional pre-launch ceremonies Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, Moscow, Russia. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Expedition 46 Flight Engineer Tim Kopra is seen after boarding a bus to depart Building 254 for their launch onboard the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft to the International Space Station, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Kopra, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 15. Photo Credit: (NASA/Victor Zelentsov)
Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos rests in a chair outside of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft just minutes after he and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov returned after spending six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA rests in a chair outside of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft just minutes after he and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov returned after spending six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, left, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, center, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos are seen inside the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft a few moments after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz MS-09 rocket is launched with Expedition 56 Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and flight engineer Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Prokopyev, Auñón-Chancellor, and Gerst will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The Soyuz TMA-19M rocket is launched with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency), Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Malenchenko, Kopra, and Peake will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
nhq201512110002 (12/11/2015) --- The Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft landing site is seen shortly after the capsule landed with Expedition 45 crew members Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Kjell Lindgren of NASA and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Kononenko, Lindgren, and Yui are returning after 141 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 44 and 45 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)
The gantry arms begin to close around the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft after it was raised into a vertical position on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015 in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz is scheduled for Dec. 15 and will send Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) to the International Space Station for a six-month stay. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)