STAR CITY, Russia (AP) _ The three-man crew headed to the International Space Station next month was declared ready for flight Wednesday after passing two days of tests at Russia's cosmonaut training center.

U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who have been training together for years, will be launched aboard a Russian rocket on April 19. A Dutch astronaut, Andre Kuipers, will join them on an 11-day mission before returning with the station's current two-member crew.

"There is the feeling of complete readiness as far as the technical side is concerned," said Padalka, who will spend six months on the station with Fincke.

The exams tested the crew's ability to cope with problems on the station and on the snug Soyuz spacecraft. Formal approval for the flight comes on the eve of the launch.

Since the Columbia space shuttle broke apart last year, the Russian spacecraft has been the only vehicle available to ferry astronauts to and from the station. Russian space officials have repeatedly complained that the extra demands have overburdened their already meager space budget. They are eager to restart the space tourism program, which reportedly earns the Russians US$20 million a flight.

Gregory Olsen, a U.S. scientist who made a fortune with optics inventions, has been picked to be the third space tourist. Olsen, the founder of Sensors Unlimited, Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey, is planning an eight-day voyage, scheduled for April 2005.

"The fact that people, everyday people not just professionals, can have a chance to enjoy the glories of the cosmos, that's in general a good idea," Fincke said. "We need to, of course, be careful because space is also a dangerous place."