WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin are heading to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final preparations to join the International Space Station with an April 20 flight atop a Soyuz rocket, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced in a press release on Tuesday.
"[The new] crew members… are in Russia finalizing their mission preparations," the release stated. "They will fly to Kazakhstan on Wednesday for ceremonial duties, check out their Soyuz MS-04 rocket and wrap up mission training."
Meanwhile, commander Shane Kimbrough and flight engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, who have been living in space since October 19, will enter the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft on Monday to return to Earth, the release explained.
The departing crew is slated to land in Kazakhstan on Monday evening after 173 days in space, the release noted.
