The Russian inter-departmental commission approving the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft prime and backup crews at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Russia, on 30 November 2012.
Front, left to right: prime crew formed by NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield. Back, left to right: back-up crew consisting of NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano.
The prime crew will be launched on the Soyuz TMA-07M to the International Space Station in December 2012.
Luca is assigned engineer on a long duration mission to the International Space Station planned for 2013.