A Russian governmental commission has approved the main and back-up crews for a new expedition to the International Space Station (ISS).
The flight will take off from the Baikanur Space Center in Kazakhstan on December 15 and the ship will dock with the ISS on December 17.
The main crew includes Russian Cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratev, NASA Astronaut Catherine Coleman and European Space Agency Astronaut Paolo Nespoli.
The back-up crew comprises Russian Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA Astronaut Michael Fossum and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa.
The new crew is expected to stay at the ISS for 152 days.
A Soyuz-TMA-19 spacecraft carrying three astronauts from the ISS landed in north Kazakhstan on Friday morning.
ZVEZDNY GORODOK, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
