A quarter of a century ago, on February 3, 1994, the "Discovery" shuttle was launched under the STS-60 program. It is significant, because for the first time a Russian cosmonaut flew on an American spacecraft. It was Sergey Krikalev, for whom STS-60 was the third expedition in his career. The flight duration was 8 days 7 hours. STS-60 went down in history as the first joint Russian-American launch.

In the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center the meeting of the Main Medical Commission ended, which analyzed the data of medical examinations of Alexey Ovchinin - the commander of the main crew of the "Soyuz MS-12" spaceship. According to the results of the meeting of the commission, the cosmonaut of Roscosmos, Alexey Ovchinin, was found fit for the space flight for health reasons. The backup crew commander, Alexander Skvortsov, was recognized as fit for the space flight by the decision of the commission, which met on October 26, 2018.

The training of cosmonauts and astronauts on the actions after landing in a wooded area in winter starts in Star City. The task is to spend two days in the forest in conditions, close to those, in which the crew of the "Voskhod-2" ship (Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev) were in March 1965 In total, this time in the GCTC will be "winter survival" of seven crews. The training is conducted by the GCTC test and training team, which consists of instructors, doctors, psychologists and other specialists.

The meeting ceremony of the crew of the 55 / 56th long expedition to the ISS (Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold) was held today. After the rehabilitation period, the expedition members met again in Star City, where Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation, Narmin Shiraliyeva, Minister of Culture of the Moscow Region, and other honored guests met to greet them. Following a long-term tradition, the crew, as well as the management of Roscosmos, the Cosmonaut Training Center, the enterprises of the rocket and space industry, and representatives of foreign space agencies laid flowers at the monument to Yuri Gagarin. After it, Oleg Artemyev, Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold, accompanied by high-ranking guests, the orchestra and the residents of Star City, walked along the Cosmonauts Alley to the Cosmonauts House, where, according to a long-term tradition, a ceremonial meeting, dedicated to the ISS-55/56 crew, took place.

On January 11, 2019, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre celebrates 59th anniversary.

Today, on December 2, 2018, the traditional press conference of the "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft was held at the Training Complex of GCTC at the Baikonur City. The cosmonauts and astronauts answered the journalists' questions and told about the plans of the upcoming expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), spacewalks and the super-abilities, needed in space. Earlier, the State Commission approved the crews of the ship. The Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, astronaut of the Canadian space agency David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain have joined the main crew of "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft. In accordance with the flight program of the International Space Station, on December 3, 2018 at 14:31 (Moscow time), the "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the launch complex № 1 (Gagarinsky start) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The docking of the "Soyuz MS-11" with the station is planned to be carried out automatically, the docking of the ship with the station will be carried out after six hours, according to the “short” scheme, and will take place on 3 December.

Yesterday morning, on November 19, after the farewell ceremonial of the main and backup crews of the ISS-58/59 in Star City, the cosmonauts and astronauts went to the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, from where they flew to Kazakhstan by two special aircrafts to complete the final pre-launch preparation at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Today, the crews will conduct the first "fitting" of the "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft, which is scheduled to start on December 3, 2018.   The main crew of the ISS-58/59 includes: Roskosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain.

On November 15 at 10 am (Moscow time) in the GCTC a meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission began, which summarized the readiness for space flight of the main and backup crews of the ISS-58/59. The main and backup crews of the "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft reported on their readiness to carry out the flight program, thanked the GCTC specialists and other organizations for their good preparation. According to the commission, the crews of the 58/59 long-term expedition to the International Space Station are ready to perform a space flight on the "Soyuz MS-11" spacecraft and the Russian ISS segment and recommended to begin preparations at the Baikonur cosmodrome .

The main and backup crews of the 58 / 59th long expedition to the ISS approached the most crucial stage of preparation at the GCTC - the examination complex trainings. At first the backup crew of the ISS-58/59 (Roskosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan) began the tests on a simulator of the "Soyuz" manned spacecraft. Then, on the Russian segment of the International Space Station, complex trainings began with the main crew of the ISS-58/59 (Roskosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, ESA astronaut David St. Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain). When the main crew started trainings, Russian and foreign journalists had the opportunity to talk with the head of GCTC Pavel Vlasov. The examination complex trainings results of both ISS-58/59 crews will be announced tonight.

On October 17,2018 at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center held a press conference with the participation of the executive director of manned space programs of Roscosmos, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia, pilot-cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and Hero of Russia, pilot-cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin. During the press conference, the journalists heard directly from the participant of the event, Aleksey Ovchinin, what was happening in the spaceship at the time of the accident, and what were the actions of the crew during the emergency situation, that led to the ballistic descent of the spacecraft in 20 km from the city of Dzheskazgan (Kazakhstan).