STAR CITY, September 05. /ITAR-TASS/. The inter-agency commission of the Cosmonauts' Training Center on Friday approved the primary crew lineup for the spaceship Soyuz TMA-14M. The crew consists of Roscosmos (Russia's Federal Space Agency) cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, as well as NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. The backup crew comprises Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyevko, as well as American astronaut Scott Kelly.

The upcoming space expedition will be notable for the fact that a Russian woman cosmonaut, Yelena Serova, will take part in a space mission for the first time in the past 20 years. She was enrolled in the cosmonauts squad on October 1, 2006. In 2011, by a decision of the inter-agency commission, Serova was appointed a flight engineer among the primary crew of Soyuz spaceship. The launch of the manned transport spaceship Soyuz TMA-14M with an international crew on board is scheduled for September 26. The International Space Station (ISS) crew for the ISS-41/42 mission will stay aboard the station for 168 days. The crew are to handle three Russian resupply spacecraft Progress and a European ATV vehicle. Samokutyayev, together with ISS crew member Maksim Surayev who is currently aboard the ISS, will take a spacewalk.

The crew will perform more than 50 experiments in the Russian segment of the ISS, take a spacewalk, and maintain an Internet blog in orbit, Soyuz crew commander Aleksandr Samokutyayev told a news conference. He said, "The spacewalk will be somewhat unusuall: we shall perform the rolk of cleaners, for it is essential to (dismantle and) remove a certain equipment".

American astronaut Barry Wilmore pointed out that there would be friends, not just crew members on board the spaceship. The astronaut said, "We have been training together for two years. We have got to entirely trust one another to accomplish the space mission".