MOSCOW - Two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut have completed training and been confirmed as participants of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the Cosmonaut Training Center announced Monday.
According to the training center's website, the main crew will consist of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin and NASA's Kevin Ford.
Novitsky has been named the commander of the new mission on the ISS, which will last five months.
Among them, only Ford has space travel experience. This is a rare situation when the main crew heading to the ISS has little or no experience of space flights.
The backup crew members are Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and NASA's Cristopher Cassidy.
Sergei Krikalyov, head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, said that the crew's training program was carried out completely. "According to the conclusion of the medical commission, all members of the main and standby crews are fit for the flight," he added.
According to the plan, the three astronauts will fly to the ISS on 14:51 Moscow time (1051 GMT) Tuesday aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M from Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Docking of the spacecraft with the ISS is scheduled on Thursday.
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