At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 27 flight engineer, stands in front of the Soyuz booster March 22, 2011 that will carry him, along with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev, Soyuz commander, and Andrey Borisenko, flight engineer, to the International Space Station.
JSC2011-E-028121 (22 March 2011) — At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 27 flight engineer, stands in front of the Soyuz booster March 22, 2011 that will carry him, along with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev, Soyuz commander, and Andrey Borisenko, flight engineer, to the International Space Station. Their launch is scheduled for April 5 (April 4, U.S. time). The Soyuz booster bears the name and likeness of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space and the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft has been dubbed “Gagarin”, all in honor of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s historic flight on April 12, 1961.
Photo credit: NASA