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Touring the Johnson Space Center on a familiarization tour, from left to right, are backup Soyuz 4 Commander Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut; Soyuz 4 Space Flight Participant Mark Shuttleworth, a South African businessman flying to the International Space Station (ISS) under a private commercial agreement with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency; Soyuz 4 Flight Engineer and European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori, flying on Soyuz 4 under a commercial agreement between the Italian Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos); Soyuz 4 Commander Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko; and backup Soyuz 4 Flight Engineer Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko; interpreter Irina Yashkova; and Russian training management representative Dennis Yadrentsev. The group is pictured in a briefing room in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Gidzenko, a veteran of the station's first resident crew, will become the first former resident to revisit the complex. The crew members also toured the Mission Control Center nearby and will be visiting other facilities throughout the week. The prime crew members will launch in late April from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to deliver a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to the station for use as a lifeboat. After spending about a week aboard the outpost, they will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz spacecraft now attached to the station.

Space Flight Participant Mark Shuttleworth trains for his mission

2002-E-03303 (28 January 2002) --- Touring the Johnson Space Center on a familiarization tour, from left to right, are backup Soyuz 4 Commander Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut; Soyuz 4 Space Flight Participant Mark Shuttleworth, a South African businessman flying to the International Space Station (ISS) under a private commercial agreement with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency; Soyuz 4 Flight Engineer and European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori, flying on Soyuz 4 under a commercial agreement between the Italian Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos); Soyuz 4 Commander Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko; and backup Soyuz 4 Flight Engineer Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko; interpreter Irina Yashkova; and Russian training management representative Dennis Yadrentsev. The group is pictured in a briefing room in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Gidzenko, a veteran of the station's first resident crew, will become the first former resident to revisit the complex. The crew members also toured the Mission Control Center nearby and will be visiting other facilities throughout the week. The prime crew members will launch in late April from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to deliver a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to the station for use as a lifeboat. After spending about a week aboard the outpost, they will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz spacecraft now attached to the station.

Image Credit: NASA
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