STAR CITY (Moscow Region), November 26 (RIA...
Russia"s Soyuz-FG carrier rocket bearing the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on December 21.
"A two-day final exams session must confirm the readiness of cosmonauts and astronauts for the space flight planned for the second half of December 2009," a Russian official at the training center at Star City told reporters on Wednesday.
The main TMA-17 crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Noguchi will be the second Japanese astronaut to fly on a Soyuz, after Toyohiro Akiyama.
The backup crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, U.S. astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
The main crew will take their tests on Thursday on a ground simulator of the Russian segment of the ISS, while the backup crew will be tested on a Soyuz spacecraft simulator.