Next ISS Crew Meets Officials as Launch Approaches

Expedition 43 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and their backups, Alexei Ovchinin and Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA appeared before the Russian State Commission on March 26 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The commission gave its final approval for the launch of Padalka, Kelly and Kornienko to the International Space Station on March 27 U.S. time (March 28, Kazakh time) in their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft.