Expedition 74 Space Station Crew Undergoes Final Training Outside Moscow - November 5, 2025

NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev conducted final qualification training October 30 and 31 at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for their upcoming International Space Station mission. Their backups, NASA astronaut Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, joined them for the training sessions. Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev are scheduled to launch November 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft for an eight-month mission on the International Space Station.  Join NASA as we go forward to the Moon and on to Mars -- discover the latest on Earth, the Solar System and beyond with a weekly update in your inbox. Subscribe at: https://www.nasa.gov/subscribe

What is said in the film

Members of the Commission. The primary crew of a ISS 74 expedition. Is here for the integrated sim on the Russian segment. Good morning. Have you had good rest?

Good breakfast.? Hope you're not hungry. He is the lucky one. He is going to take a break and you guys are going to have to work. What is more, difficult flying on the station or on the Soyuz vehicle?

Well, for the station, the exams are more critical, but less complicated because, in the Soyuz, the time goes fast. Everything goes fast. We need to make fast decisions. And on this station, we have support from the ground and operations are not usually as critical as the vehicle operations. For Sergei, this is your first flight.

What was the most difficult during your training or the most difficult part was waiting. Training goes as it does and then this time stretches into years. And so this what makes it difficult? Is, yes, it was a very interesting experience. The most interesting thing.

Is to meet my crewmates, my new family, and all the wonderful people that I have come across. And I love trying new foods. So it was very interesting. Yes, survival on water. That was, it was pretty hot inside the vehicle.

Now in Houston, it's very hot. And, I'm happy to be here where it is not cold and not hot. Sergei, have you been in touch with the crew on the station? Have they gave you any given you any pointers for the exam? Well, we were the backup for the current crew.

Our backup crew has better debrief as commander. He's an experienced crew member. He has his own, experience, his own, Russia. Now, of course, we exchange, and knowledge exchange experiences, but, Each crew has its own individual, tactics and specifics. Today on the SS.

Oh, you're talking about, you're talking about your flight on the station. Well, our increment will continue with the science program. It will last 241 days. We're scheduled to run about 40 scientific experiments and biotechnology, medical engineering, earth sciences, space sciences. We're scheduled to do two EVAs.

And of course, we will be receiving and unloading cargo vehicles. And, we will be greeting the Dragon crew in the spring. And at the end of the our increment will greet our current backups, who will replace us at the increment. With us, we're bringing payloads that will be used in biotech experiments. This hardware will be brought on our Soyuz and Sergei’s crew will bring it in their Soyuz vehicle to the ground.

Biotech experiments have requirements for the timing for the conditions in which they need to be performed. So we need to bring them ASAP. For example... unintelligible... is an experiment studying fruit flies, which are perfect, for, scientific studies.

We also will be studying other microorganisms. And we'll be bringing also, hardware and consumables for other experiments. We'll bring a bit of artificial intelligence with us to. Unfortunately, we don't know about the tickets, about the, problems that we will be given for the exam. The envelopes are sealed, and we will find out what we have to deal with when we are at our workstation.

So. All crew members have to be excellent in their performance, regardless of how difficult the system or experiment is. Because this is what is expected of us by all the specialists. Are there other questions? What about your sim today?

Well, this is a final, which will simulate a routine day on the station, which will include systems maintenance to payload operations. But. In contrast with a typical day on the station, we will be dealing with an off nominal situation at our sim to day to in order to verify our readiness for such events. What kind of of normal situations? All they could be anything.

It could be system failures, life support systems which will require replacement of the consumables up to emergencies, fire, depress, ammonia leak. Those are the most serious incidents that can happen on the station. Well, all the best to you. Let's take a picture. How are you feeling?

Feeling well. Things are fine on the station. Good morning. Yesterday you had your first day of final exams. Would the commander tell us how it went?

Yesterday we had an exam on the Russian segment mock up. We performed routine operations, payload operations, systems maintenance. We also had to deal with several of normal situations, and my crew has successfully managed to deal with those. And that's about it. Sergei, this is the first time for you, going through these exams.

Can you comment? Well, I already did have the experience of, doing these final exams when I was in the backup crew. So yesterday it was similar. It was similar to, the training runs, training simulations, except. The fact that we, Have a say in what off-nominal situations we will be dealing with.

And this is a difference with the regular training sims. Yesterday you spent the whole day in the Russian segment, but you didn't have much to do. Are you going to have a lot more tasks to perform today? It is possible. We will see, but yesterday went really well.

We worked well together, helping each other and I think, we're going to be doing the same today. We don't want to, overload you with the questions because you have a final exam in front of you. So good luck and all the best at the exam. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, copy. Current time is ten 3500.

Time has been set. 5, 4, 3, 2... 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Temperature in the barrel 21 decimal zero. 16, 3...

We are ready to enter the values. Members of the Commission. The backup crew of increment ISS 74 has arrived for the final exam. We are in excellent mood. We had a long training.

We practiced pretty much all situations that can arise during a spaceflight. So our crew is completely ready. I have been training for Soyuz flight since 2012. I know this vehicle quite well. We did a lot of training and I feel ready to be the backup for the Prime crew.

The main objective of our mission is the scientific research. For the benefit of our country and the entire humanity, advancement of space exploration. Studies of Earth so that we understand where we are in this universe. And of course, the international cooperation continuing in this space is a very important part of our mission. You have not had an experience of flying to space.

How was the training at the Star City with your experienced crewmates? They made it easy. I was very lucky to have two people who have already flown to space and, and I’ve been able to learn so much from them that it’s a spectacular opportunity. Pyotr, what is easier being a commander or flight engineer? Well, commander has a lot more responsibilities and, you get, somewhat different perspective on the space flight.

So in some ways, flight engineer's job is easier. Have you, exchanged, positions with the prime crew in terms of how to deal with, challenges of the spaceflight? Yes, of course we do. But mostly we, do get our expertise, our training from our instructors who are extremely knowledgeable and experienced. Do you have any tricks to keep calm and...

well, breathe deeply Remember that the tasks that we have to perform are fascinating and diverse and always, look back at the experiences of your prior flights. I try speaking Russian, but often times I need help. He does speak good Russian. Today at the sim we will be practicing. All the actions that the crew perform during real flight starting from launch, all the way through the landing and post landing operations.

Of course there will be some off-nominal situations thrown our way. Some of them at the first, stage of the flight, others at the later time that may affect the content of their operations. So we will see. And all that is part of the sim.

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