Space station crew begins final training before December launch

The next crew of the International Space Station were subjected to a final qualification training this week at the Gagarin Training Center in Star City, Russia. In the picture are Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov, and flight engineers Scott Tingle of NASA, and Norighige Kanai of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (from Reuters video)

Reuters — The next crew of the International Space Station conducted final qualification training this week at the Gagarin Training Center in Star City, Russia. Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov, and flight engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) posed for photos and took questions from the media ahead of their training.

The crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 17 for a five and a half month mission at the space station