According to press-service of the Cagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, the composition of the crew, according to the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Commission, is comprised by Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano.
During meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission in Star City the primary and backup crews of a new expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) have been recommended for approval.

Finally a new expedition crews will be approved by the State Commission directly at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a few days before the launch.

The composition of the primary crew, according to the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Commission included Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. Their backups – Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese Space Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Previously, both crews have successfully passed all pre-flight exams in Star City, soon they will continue prelaunch preparations at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where on May 29 the manned spacecraft “Soyuz TMA-09M” will be launched with the crew of a new expedition to the ISS aboard.

This will be the second flight to the ISS on the “short” six-hour scheme. Earlier this scheme was successfully tested several times by Russian cargo ships “Progress” when they flew to the ISS, and then the scheme was first successfully used and tested during the flight of the previous expedition to the ISS, which was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 29 March and on the same day was already at the station.