14 DAY TRIAL // The second half of Expedition 34 to the International Space Station (ISS), made up of three astronauts from two countries, is now ready for a planned launch to the orbital facility. The image above shows all three of them, on September 21.
The image was snapped after the crew finished two days of final qualification exams for the upcoming mission. The tests were conducted at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in Star City, Russia.
To the left there is NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, in the middle cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and to the right cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin. Novitskiy will be the Commander of the Soyuz TMA-06M space capsule that will take the trio to orbit, on October 23.
Both Novitskiy and Tarelkin are cosmonauts at the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos). The former will also act as Expedition 34 Commander when he reaches the ISS. This crew will remain in low-Earth orbit for around 5 months.