MOSCOW - Russian, Canadian and US pilots were confirmed as crew members to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) next month, Russia's Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center said Thursday.

The state commission approved Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Thomas Marshburn from the United States as crew members for the 34/35 expedition to the ISS.

The backup crew consists of Russian Fedor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano from European space agency and Karen Nyberg from NASA.

All six completed their pre-flight training Wednesday in the Star City in Moscow region, said the training center on its website.

The launch of the Soyuz TMA-07M spaceship is scheduled on December19 from Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Currently, the crew of two Russian cosmonauts and one US astronaut works on the orbit.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and US astronaut Thomas Marshburn (L-R) pose for a picture before an exam on a simulator of the International Space Station at the Russian cosmonaut training centre at Star City outside Moscow Nov 28, 2012. The three-man crew is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in December. [Photo/Agencies]