By

Meghan Bartels

2019-02-23T12:21:18Z

Spaceflight 

Nick Hague and Christina Koch are a little busy: In just three weeks, the NASA astronauts and their Russian counterpart will climb into a Soyuz capsule, blast off from a launch pad in Kazakhstan and make their way to the International Space Station for a six-month stay. The three-person crew has just completed its final exams, a mandatory set of tests that ensure astronauts are prepared for their flight and anything that can go wrong during it. All astronauts know that something can always go wrong, but Hague more than most; he and veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were strapped into a capsule at the tip of a Soyuz rocket on Oct. 11 last year, when an anomaly with a booster caused the launch to abort. Hague and Ovchinin were unharmed during their half-hour trip back down to Earth, thanks to their exhaustive training.