BAIKONUR, September 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The State Commission on Wednesday approved crewmembers for the Expedition 41/42 to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 26.

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft will deliver crewmembers of the next ISS long-term expedition, including a Russian woman cosmonaut for the first time in the last 20 years, to the ISS.

“The Souyuz TMA-14M spacecraft will carry Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. The backup crew is made of Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko, as well as American astronaut Scott Kelly,” one of the crewmembers told Itar-Tass.

The ISS crew will stay aboard the station for 168 days. The crewmembers are to handle three Russian resupply spacecraft Progress and a European ATV vehicle. Samokutyayev, together with the ISS crew member Maxim Surayev who is currently aboard the station, will take a spacewalk.