Vladimir Solovyov, Chief Flight Director, MCC-M, answers reporters questions during a Soyuz post-docking press conference at the Russian mission Control Center in Korolev, Russia on Saturday March 28, 2009. The Soyuz TMA-14 docked to the International Space Station carrying Expedition 19 Commander Gennady I. Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael R. Barratt and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Vladimir Solovyov, Chief Flight Director, MCC-M, answers reporters questions during a Soyuz post-docking press conference at the Russian mission Control Center in Korolev, Russia on Saturday March 28, 2009. The Soyuz TMA-14 docked to the International Space Station carrying Expedition 19 Commander Gennady I. Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael R. Barratt and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

S94-35069 (17 June 1994) --- Crew members for the joint Space Shuttle/Mir missions pose for a team portrait in the midst of a three week training period at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). On the front row are, left to right, astronaut Norman E. Thagard and cosmonauts Vladimir N. Dezhurov and Gennadi M. Strekalov. Back row, left to right, cosmonauts Yuri I. Onufrienko and Anatoly Y. Solovyov, astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar, cosmonauts Nikolai M. Budarin and Alexander F. Poleshchuk.

Crew members for the joint Space Shuttle / Mir mission field questions from the press at JSC. Left to right are cosmonauts Nikolai M. Budarin, Anatoliy Y. Solovyov, Gennadiy M. Strekalov, Vladimir N. Dezhurov, and astronauts Bonnie J. Dunbar, Norman E. Thagard, along with Kari L. Fluegel of the Public Affairs Office's (PAO) News and Media Services Branch. Flags representing the international space partners - Russia, the United States, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada and Japan - are displayed behind the conference participants.

S94-34094 (16 June 1994) --- Crewmembers for the joint Space Shuttle/Mir missions meet the press at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). On the dais are, left to right, cosmonauts Nikolai M. Budarin, Anatoly Y. Solovyov, Gennady M. Strekalov and Vladimir N. Dezhurov, and astronauts Bonnie J. Dunbar and Norman E. Thagard. In a precedent-setting flight, Thagard will be launched with Dezhurov and Strekalov to Mir early next year for a three month mission, designated as Mir 18, on Russia's space station. Then in late May, as the assignment of STS-71, the space shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with Mir to pick up the Mir 18 crew and transfer cosmonauts Solovyov and Budarin to the station for the Mir 19 mission. STS-71 mission specialist Dunbar is training as Thagard's backup.

S94-34099 (16 June 1994) --- Crewmembers for two of the joint Space Shuttle/Mir missions pose for photographs after fielding questions from the press at Johnson Space Center (JSC). Left to right are cosmonaut Nikolai M. Budarin, astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar, cosmonauts Anatoliy Y. Solovyov, Gennadiy M. Strekalov and Vladimir N. Dezhurov; and astronaut Norman E. Thagard. In a precedent-setting flight, Thagard will be launched with Dezhurov and Strekalov to Russia?s Mir Space Station early next year for a three-month mission, designated as Mir 18. Then in late May, as the assignment of STS-71, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with Mir to pick up the Mir 18 crew and transfer cosmonauts Solovyov and Budarin to the station for the Mir 19 mission. STS-71 mission specialist Dunbar is training as Thagard?s backup.

S94-47050 (28 Oct 1994) --- Crew members for the joint Space Shuttle/Russian Mir Space Station missions assemble for an informal portrait during a break in training in the Systems Integration Facility at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). In front (left to right) are astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar; cosmonauts Aleksandr F. Poleshchuk, Yuriy I. Onufriyenko, Gennadiy M. Strekalov and Vladimir N. Dezhurov. In the rear are astronaut Gregory J. Harbaugh; cosmonaut Anatoliy Y. Solovyev, and astronauts Charles J. Precourt, Robert L. Gibson, Ellen S. Baker and Norman E. Thagard. In a precedent-setting flight, Thagard will be launched as a guest researcher along with Dezhurov, commander, and Strekalov, flight engineer, to Russia's Mir Space Station early next year for a three month mission, designated as Mir 18. Then in late spring, as the assignment of STS-71, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with Mir to pick up the Mir 18 crew and transfer cosmonauts Solovyov and Nikolai M. Budarin to the station for the Mir 19 mission. STS-71 mission specialist Dunbar is training as Thagard's backup.