Expedition 34/35 Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), right, receives the traditional blessing from a Russian Orthodox priest at the Cosmonaut Hotel on the morning of their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of a Soyuz rocket later in the afternoon will send Hadfield, Roman Romanenko of Russia and Tom Marschburn of the United States on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)
Photographer NASA/Carla Cioffi
Date December 19, 2012