On Wednesday, May 30, the cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Leonov celebrates his birthday.

On May 29, 2018, as part of the prelaunch training program, the crews of “Soyuz MS-09” spacecraft conducted open training sessions attended by representatives of the media. Cosmonauts and astronauts of the main and backup crews Sergei Prokopiev, Oleg Kononenko, Alexander Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Anne Macclein and David Saint-Jacques held training sessions at the multi-purpose stand for manual approach of the” Soyuz MS” spacecraft, training on the on-board documentation of the spacecraft , got training of the factors of space flight on special simulators and sports training.

Specialists of RSC “Energia” at the Baikonur cosmodrome successfully completed the operations for refueling the transport manned spacecraft “ Soyuz MS-09” with fuel components and compressed gases.

On May 21, 2018, on the territory of the test training complex (17th site) of the Baikonur complex, at the flag-raising ceremony of the countries, participating in the launch of the Soyuz MS-09 transport manned spacecraft, the final phase of preflight preparation of crews was officially launched .

Since the beginning of our space era, cosmonauts have formed many wonderful traditions, that provide a connection between times and generations. Among them - a visit of a Museum of the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yuri Gagarin and Red Square before departure at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Russian scientists of the Institute for Biomedical Problems and NASA signed a Letter of intent about joint experiments on crew’s ground-based isolation in the framework of Mars and Moon missions. Currently frame contracts are being prepared, - said the spokesman for the Institute Mark Belakovsky.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskyi and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet are traveling to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft.

Baikonur launchsite saw traditional flag-raising ceremony taking place at the pad #17 in front of Cosmonaut hotel.

Russian prime and back-up crew members of ISS-49/50 mission passed preflight exams in GCTC.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Ivan Wagner, Sergey Ryazansky, Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Prokopiev, Alexander Samokutyayev, NASA astronauts Scott Teangle, Randolph Bresnik, Andrew Feustel, Janet Epps, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai preparing to go to space in 2017 and 2018 passed water survival trainings in GCTC.