Expedition 36/37 prime and backup crew members

Behind the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 36/37 Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency plants a tree in his name in a traditional ceremony, 22 May, 2013, as backup crewmates Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (left) and Mikhail Tyurin (hidden) look on, along with prime Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin (third from right), backup crew member Rick Mastracchio of NASA (second from right) and prime Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA (far right).

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano are preparing for their launch, 29 May, 2013, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station.