Expedition 36/37 prime and backup crew members

Outside their Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the Expedition 36/37 prime and backup crew members conducted the traditional raising of flags of their countries and host country Kazakhstan, 18 May, 2013, and participated in other ceremonies.

From left to right are prime Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, prime Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA, prime Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, and backup crew members Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano are preparing for launch 29 May, Kazakh time, in their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station.