Next Space Station Crew Undergoes Tests

STAR CITY, Russia – A new crew for the international space station underwent tests for a second and final day Friday ahead of its launch later this month.

Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Geoffrey Williams, as well as their backup crew of Fyodor Yurchikhin and Michael Fink, have been training on a model of the Russian segment of the space station and the Soyuz spacecraft.

The crew, which is scheduled to be launched March 20, has been joined by Brazil’s first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, who will spend 10 days aboard the station.

"The training has been really quite strict, demanding a lot from every person, every crew member," Pontes told reporters at the training facility at Star City. "But we have excellent comrades where who are always helping me, excellent instructors, as well."

Williams said he was not at all superstitious about the fact that this will be the 13th expedition to the space station. "In terms of the number 13 … it is just a number between 12 and 14 in the sequence," he said.