Expedition 52-53 backup crewmembers Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, left), Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, center) and Mark Vande Hei of NASA (right) lay flowers at the statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in the town of Baikonur, Kazakhstan July 18 during traditional pre-launch ceremonies. They are serving as backups to Randy Bresnik of NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, who will launch July 28 on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a five-month mission on the International Space Station.

NASA/Victor Zelentsov

jsc2017e100899 (July 18, 2017) --- Expedition 52-53 backup crewmembers Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, left), Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, center) and Mark Vande Hei of NASA (right) lay flowers at the statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in the town of Baikonur, Kazakhstan July 18 during traditional pre-launch ceremonies. They are serving as backups to Randy Bresnik of NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, who will launch July 28 on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a five-month mission on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Photographer Victor Zelentsov

Date July 18, 2017