Fulfilling a long-standing pre-launch tradition, Expedition 33/34 Flight Engineer Kevin Ford of NASA (right) plants a tree in his name behind the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan October 17, 2012. Ford, Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin (left) and Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy(center) are preparing for launch October 23 in their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft to spend five months on the International Space Station. NASA/Victor Zelentsov
Photographer Photographer: Victor Zelentsov
Date October 17, 2012