Roscosmos revealed on May 23 the patch for the next crew to fly to the International Space Station on board the Russian vehicle Soyuz TMA-22 in October 2011.
For this launch, the patch is based on a drawing by 5-year-old Maxim Baikalov of Abakan [Republic of Khakassia, Russia].
Roscosmos has been running the Soyuz patch contest for more than two years. Nine Russian crew vehicles have been flown into space with the patches made by young artists. Among the winners, there were children from the USA and China.
French boy Marciel Santos Kayle, 12, who lives in French Guiana, not far away from the new launch pad for Russian Soyuz rockets, came to Baikonur in April, as a winner of the patch contest, to see off the crew of Gagarin vehicle devoted to the 50th anniversary of the first space mission by Yury Gagarin.
Next winner, Katya Ikramova is to show up at the space port to watch the launch of Soyuz TMA-02M on June 8.