The State Commission for conducting flight tests of manned space systems, chaired by Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation, approved the composition of the main and backup crews of the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft.

This morning, April 6, 2020, in accordance with the decision of the State Commission, the "Soyuz-2.1a" launch vehicle was rolled out to the launch pad of site № 31.

On April 4, 2020, meetings of the Technical Management and the State Commission were held at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where they examined the readiness of the "Soyuz-2.1a" launch vehicle with the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft to be rolled out to the launch pad of site № 31.

At the site № 17 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome the final stage of the preparation of the ISS-63 crew for the upcoming space flight is in full swing.

At Baikonur Cosmodrome the preparation of the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft continues for launch on April 9, 2020 under the program of the 62nd and 63rd main expeditions to the International Space Station.

At Baikonur Cosmodrome the preparation of the "Progress MS-14" cargo ship for launch under the International Space Station program continues.

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome, specialists at the Yuzhny Space Center and the RSC "Energia" (parts of Roscosmos State Corporation) completed operations on refueling the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft with fuel components and compressed gases.

Today, on March 26, 2020, at the site № 17 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in front of the Cosmonaut Hotel, a ceremony was held to raise the flags of the countries, participating in the launch of the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft.

At the Baikonur cosmodrome, the final stage of preparation of the main and backup crews of the "Soyuz MS-16" manned spacecraft for flight under the program of the 63rd main expedition to the International Space Station has begun.

On the morning of March 24, 2020, the ceremony of seeing off the main and backup crews of the 63rd long expedition to the International Space Station, departing to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, took place at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. The members of the main crew are Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Wagner, Christopher Cassidy, their backups: Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Babkin and Stephen Bowen. A few hours later they arrived at Baikonur to complete the prelaunch preparations.