Meeting the press

Having passed their final exams last week and following their official certification for spaceflight, the prime and backup crews for the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft held a press conference at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre on 10 August 2015. According to tradition, they later signed a memorial book in the office of the first person to go to space, Yuri Gagarin. Their next visit of the day was the Red Square and Kremlin in Moscow, Russia to lay flowers and pay tribute to Russian heroes of spaceflight.

From left to right, prime crew: Aidyn Aimbetov, Sergei Volkov and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen; backup crew: Oleg Skripochka and Sergey Prokopiev and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

The prime crew is set for launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 04:34 GMT (06:34 CEST, 10:34 local time) on 2 September 2015 and to arrive at the Space Station just six hours later. Andreas and Aidyn will stay for just 10 days. They will leave Sergei on the Station and return to Earth in a different Soyuz together with Gennady Padalka, who is already in space.

Connect with Andreas on social media at http://andreasmogensen.esa.int/
Follow the iriss mission via http://blogs.esa.int/iriss/