Stock Photo - At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 4243 Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA pauses to reflect as he prepares to enter a Soyuz simulator October 31 for the second day of qualification exams. Overlooking Virts is a wall mural depicting the image of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space. Virts, Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti are preparing for launch in the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Nov. 24, Kazakh time, for a 5 ½ month mission on the International Space Station..NASAStephanie Stoll.