ZVEZDNY GORODOK, Moscow region. March 6 (Interfax-AVN) - An interdepartmental commission approved the next crew of the International Space Station (ISS) and their backups at the Cosmonaut Training Center on Thursday.
"ISS Expedition 39/40 is comprised of Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson," the Cosmonaut Training Center press service told Interfax-AVN.
The crew of Soyuz TMA-12M, which will blast off on March 26, will receive the ATV-5 European resupply ship, go on two spacewalks under the ISS Russian program and conduct a number of scientific experiments. The mission will last for 175 days.
Russia's Alexander Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore were selected as Expedition 39/40 backups.