Karen, Fyodor and Luca Soyuz training

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (left) during a Soyuz TMA spacecraft training session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Russia on 27 November 2012.

Luca, Karen and Fyodor are the Soyuz TMA-07M back-up crew, the prime crew will be launched to the International Space Station in December 2012.

Luca is assigned engineer on a long duration mission to the International Space Station planned for 2013.