Behind their Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (left), Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA (center) and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin (right) plant a tree in Wakata’s name Nov. 1 in a ceremonial pre-flight tradition.
JSC2013-E-091601 (1 Nov. 2013) — Behind their Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (left), Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA (center) and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin (right) plant a tree in Wakata’s name Nov. 1 in a ceremonial pre-flight tradition. The trio is preparing for its launch Nov. 7, Kazakh time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station. NASA/Victor Zelentsov