Expedition 40/41 Crew Conducts News Conference and Traditional Ceremonies in Russia's Red Square

Expedition 40/41 Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency and their backups, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Terry Virts of NASA and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, conducted a pre-launch news conference at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia May 8, then toured Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow where they laid flowers at the Kremlin Wall where Russian space icons are interred. Suraev, Wiseman and Gerst are scheduled for a May 29 launch, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft to begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station.