A few hours ago the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after about six anx a half hours reached the International Space Station carrying three new crew members. The Soyuz used the fast path normally used.

The three new members of the crew of the International Space Station, who complete the Expedition 47 crew, are:

Jeffrey Nels Williams. Born on January 18, 1958 in Superior, Wisconsin, USA, earned a degree in engineering from the Military Academy at West Point and then served in the US Army later becoming a test pilot. In 1996 he was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate. In 2000 he was part of the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew during the STS-101 mission, which stopped at the International Space Station. In 2002 he was the commander of the NEEMO 3 submarine mission, which lasted six days. In 2006 he was part of the International Space Station crew during Expedition 13. In 2009 he returned to the Station as part of the Expedition 21/22 crew and in the second part he was also the commander. He’s a super-veteran of space missions, so much that he’s the first to serve in three long-duration missions on the Station, and for his work received several awards and decorations. He’s married, has two sons and also three grandchildren.

Aleksey Ovchinin. Born on September 28, 1971 in Rybinsk, in the then USSR and now in Russia, he graduated as a pilot at the Yeisk Higher Military Pilot School and then served as a pilot instructor and later as a commander of an aviation unit of the 70th Separate Test Training Aviation Regiment of Special Purpose (OITAPON). In 2006 he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate. In 2013 he participated in ESA’s CAVES 2013 training mission spending six days in the Sa Grutta caves, in Sardinia, Italy. This is his first space mission. He’s married and has one daughter.

Oleg Skripochka. Born on December 24, 1969 in Nevinnomyssk, in the then USSR and now in Russia. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering and rocket construction at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University then worked for the aerospace company Energia RSC. In 1997 he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate and was part of the International Space Station Expedition crew during Expedition 25/26 together with the American astronaut Scott Kelly, who just returned from his last mission. On the Station he participated in three spacewalks.

With the end of the one-year mission, the management of the missions is returning to normal. Consequently, these three crew members will remain on the International Space Station just over five and a half months, until the beginning of September 2016.
The Soyuz TMA-20M is probably the last for its spacecraft version because the Russian space agency Roscosmos planned the introduction of the new version, called Soyuz-MS. Its improvements were already tested on the Progress MS-1 space cargo ship launched at the end of 2015 and the Progress MS-2 is scheduled to be launched at the end of March. If all systems work properly they’ll proceed with the adoption of the Soyuz-MS.