General Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency, ROSCOSMOS, Vladimir Popovkin, waits at the Soyuz launch pad 31 to say farewell to Expedition 33/34 crew members, Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy, Flight Engineer Kevin Ford, and Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin ahead of their boarding the spacecraft for launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 23, 2012, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will be on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)