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Adorned with the logo of the Sochi Olympic Organizing Committee and other related artwork, the third stage of the Soyuz booster rocket stands ready for assembly with other rocket components October 28 in the Integration Building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as preparations continue for the launch of the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft with Expedition 38/39 crewmembers Rick Mastracchio of NASA, Mikhail Tyurin and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aboard. The trio, which will launch Nov. 7, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz from Baikonur to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station, will carry the Olympic torch to the station for a four-day visit. The torch will return to Earth with another trio of station residents on November 11 and will be part of the torch relay that ends with the lighting of the flame at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia February 7 to mark the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics. NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Adorned with the logo of the Sochi Olympic Organizing Committee and other related artwork, the third stage of the Soyuz booster rocket stands ready for assembly with other rocket components October 28 in the Integration Building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as preparations continue for the launch of the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft with Expedition 38/39 crewmembers Rick Mastracchio of NASA, Mikhail Tyurin and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aboard. The trio, which will launch Nov. 7, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz from Baikonur to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station, will carry the Olympic torch to the station for a four-day visit. The torch will return to Earth with another trio of station residents on November 11 and will be part of the torch relay that ends with the lighting of the flame at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia February 7 to mark the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics. NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Photographer Victor Zelentsov