The interdepartmental commission has approved the main and backup crews for the new expedition to the International Space Station.

      

      The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is planned to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 15.

      

      "The main crew of the new expedition consists of the Russian astronaut Yury Malenchenko, the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra and the European astronaut Timothy Peake (Great Britain). Their doublers are the Roskosmos astronaut Anatoly Ivanishin, the NASA astronaut Cathleen Rubins and the Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi from JAXA.

      

      The crews will take off to Baikonur on November 30.

      

      Both the crews underwent a long-term training program in Russia, the USA, Europe and Japan. The new expedition is expected to carry out more than 50 scientific experiments. The major experiments will be those in medicine, ecology, and astrophysics.