Expedition 43 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos and their backups, Alexei Ovchinin and Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA participated in traditional ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow on March 14. Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete their training for the launch of Padalka, Kelly and Kornienko to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft on March 27 U.S. time (March 28, Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year aboard the orbital outpost.

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