BAIKONUR, July 14 (Itar-Tass) —— Kazakhstan’s cosmonaut may soon fly to the ISS, the commander of the Soyuz-TMA-05M spacecraft, Yuri Malenchenko, told a pre-launch news conference.

On Thursday, Malenchenko had a word with the chief of Kazakhstan’s space agency, Talgat Musabayev, with whom he was on a space mission in 1994.

“I know that talks are in progress. I am certain that a representative of Kazakhstan will be included in a space crew soon,” Malenchenko said.

He added that Kazakhstan’s candidates had already undergone training at the Star City space training center near Moscow.