On June 15, 2015, Baikonur saw “Mass Media day” taking place in GCTC test and training center of #17 launchpad. Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft main (Oleg Kononenko, Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren) and back-up (Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Kopra, Timohy Peake) crews arranged open training for mass media representative.

Kazakh astronaut Aidyn Aimbetov successfully passed all exams to fly to the ISS in September 2015, - Kazakh President press-service reports.

On July 8, 2015, in GCTC Interdepartmental Commission approved next ISS crew to go to the station onboard Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft.

Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov was approved for September flight to the ISS.

On July 3, 2015, at 07.55, Moscow time, Russian aerospace industry launching crews successfully launched Soyuz-U booster with progress M-28M cargo vehicle from #1 launchpad of Baikonur spaceport.

On July 1, 2015, in accordance with the decision taken by State Commission launching crews rolled-out Soyuz-U booster with Progress M-28M cargo vehicle from integration building to the launching pad #1 (Gagarin launch). The rocket was installed and specialists started working according to the first launch day schedule.

Progress M-28M cargo vehicle to be launched to the ISS on July 3 was sent for general assembling, - Roscosmos reports. The vehicle is to be orbited not by Soyuz 2.1a booster used for the previous launch that was a failure but tried-and-true Soyuz-U, - Mission Control Centre specifies.

Kazakh astronaut Aidyn Aimbetov was included in ISS mission crew, Roscosmos official representative Igor Burenkov said.

Scheduled ISS orbit adjustment aimed to create optimal ballistic conditions for Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft docking with the station will be accomplished on Thursda, - Mission Conrol Centre representative reported.

Next Progress cargo vehicle will be launched with the help of Soyuz-U booster instead Soyuz-2.1A that failed to launch Progress M-27M on April 28. This will enable to improve Soyuz-2.1a third stage that was the cause of April accident. Institute for Space Politics Director Ivan Moiseyev said yesterday, on June 9.