At the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft awaits its encapsulation in the upper stage of the Soyuz booster rocket Sept. 18 that will propel it into orbit.
The Soyuz will arrive at its launch pad on Sept. 23 for final prelaunch preparations.
Expedition 41 Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore of NASA, Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Elena Serova of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz Sept. 26, Kazakh time, to begin a 5 month mission on the International Space Station.
Serova will become the fourth Russian woman to fly in space and the first Russian woman to live and work on the station. Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
JSC2014-E-081143 (18 Sept. 2014) – Larger image
