Aaccording to the ISS flight program next Wednesday Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft will be launched from Baikonur by Soyuz-2.1a booster. On October 07 the crews conducted final fit-check of the spacecraft at the pad #254 of Baikonur launchsite.

The first launch of reusable Amur booster with methane-powered engine is planned for 2026, Roscosmos reported. Reusability is the major current trend in space industry and rocket engineering aimed first of all to decrease the costs.  

On Sunday, September 27, ISS-64 mission crews both prime and back-up left for Baikonur from Chkalovsky airfield located in Moscow region by two different planes. In several hours the planes successfully landed at Krainy airfield.

Soyuz MS-17 prime and back-up crews successfully passed exams in GCTC, - press-office representative reported. “Both prime comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins and back-up crew including Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Bovitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai successfully passed two-weeks long examination session getting an “excellent” mark”, - the source stated.

Last week, eight future cosmonauts, together with the test-training brigade of the Yu.A. Gagarin returned to Star City, completing the second stage of special parachute training (SPPK) on the basis of the Menzelinsky branch of the autonomous non-profit organization Central Aero Club of the Republic of Tatarstan DOSAAF of Russia.

The next spacewalk of Russian cosmonauts from the International Space Station, which is planned before the end of 2020, will be performed from the new module for the first time, a spokesman for the Roscosmos press service said. Currently, exits under the Russian program are carried out from the Pirs module. In 2021, it should be separated from the station and de-orbited to make room for the Science module. After that, exits will be conducted from the "Search" module.

On Thursday, September 10, 2020, specialists of the Roscosmos State Corporation accomplished ISS orbit adjustment maneuver with the help of Progress MS-14 cargo vehicle.

The launch pad for the launch complex of the Angara carrier rocket was delivered to the Vostochny cosmodrome along the Northern Sea Route in two months, the Center for Operation of Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities (Roscosmos enterprise) reported.

The Vostochny Space Center (a branch of the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) celebrates its 10th anniversary. It was on this day in 2010 that the Order was signed to establish a branch of the then FSUE Center for the Operation of Ground Space Infrastructure Objects - the Vostochny Space Center.

Russia offers space tourists flights to the International Space Station under an expanded program with an extended stay on the ISS - up to one month, said Dmitry Loskutov, General Director of Glavkosmos (a Roscosmos enterprise).