jsc2017e100902

jsc2017e100902 (July 18, 2017) --- Expedition 52-53 backup crewmembers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, left), Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Mark Vande Hei of NASA (right) pay tribute at the statue of Russian space designer Mikhail Ryazanskiy in the town of Baikonur, Kazakhstan July 18. The statue honors Ryazanskiy, who was the grandfather of prime crewmember Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos. The three are serving as backups to Ryazanskiy, Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, who will launch July 28 on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a five-month mission on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov