Backup Crew Member Michael Hopkins

JSC2013-E-013522 (4 March 2013) --- At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 35/36 backup crew member Michael Hopkins of NASA answers questions from the news media March 4 as he and his crewmates prepare for a series of qualification simulations in Soyuz and Russian segment trainers. Hopkins, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergei Ryazanskiy will serve as backup prime crew members to Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who are preparing for launch to the International Space Station March 29 (Kazakh time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft. Photo credit: NASA