State Commission approved ISS mission crew in Baikonur (PHOTO)

The main crew consists of Sergey Volkov (commander, Roscosmos cosmonaut), Andreas Mogensen (onboard engineer, ESA astronaut) and Kazakhstani cosmonaut and onboard engineer Aidyn Aimbetov. Soyuz TMA-18M space vehicle with the 46/46 crew members onboard is to blast off from Baikonur September 2, 2015.

This is Sergey Volkov's third space flight. Head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov and his Kazakhstani colleague Talgat Mussabayev, Director-General of the European Space Agency Johann-Dietrich Wörner wished success to the crew. "I am thankful to Roscosmos for the opportunity to train our cosmonaut in a short period of time," Mussabayev said. Heads of Russian companies maintaining the flight noted high physical and technical preparedness of Aimbetov. Addressing the commission Aimbetov said he is grateful to President N.Nazarbayev and Kazcosmos for the chance to perform the space flight "in such a tough economic period." Presently, the main and backup crews are giving a pre-start conference being attended by more than 20 journalists of national, Russian and European mass media as well as families of the cosmonauts and astronauts.