Expedition 38/39 Crew Departs for Kazakh Launch Site

Expedition 38/39 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and backup crew members Max Suraev of Roscosmos, Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency participated in traditional ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow on Oct. 26. Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete their training for the launch of Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft on Nov. 7, Kazakh time. The footage also features scenes of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly in space, and Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space.