Despite the strong wind and snow, not only the Star City residents and the staff of the GCTC came to greet the crew of the 56/57 expedition to the ISS, but also the leaders of the rocket and space industry enterprises, as well as the ambassadors of the United States and Germany in Russia John Huntsman and Rüdiger von Fritsch. The crew members of the "Soyuz MS-09" (call name "Altai") Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopiev, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor returned to Earth safely on December 20, 2018 after performing a 196-day flight. Ambassadors of the United States and Germany, representatives of related organizations of the rocket and space industry, foreign space agencies, municipalities and other associations, cosmonauts colleagues warmly welcomed the crew, handing memorable addresses and gifts. At the end of the meeting, the crew of the ISS-56/57 thanks all those, who were involved in their flight.

The management of the GCTC, under the leadership of the head of the Center Pavel Vlasov, met with the delegation of the Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research Institute) (MAI) under the leadership of Rector Mikhail Pogosyan to discuss the possibilities and areas for further cooperation. The main objective of the meeting held in the GCTC was to increase the level of training, conduct joint research and improve the training and test base. As a result of the meeting, it was decided to establish working groups for the development of a “roadmap” of cooperation. MAI is a leader among civilian universities in the number of graduates, who have become cosmonauts and specialists in the rocket and space industry.

Today, at the GCTC has completed experimental studies on the development of interactions between the cosmonaut and the anthropomorphic robot, which is controlled in a teleoperator mode. The goal was to develop a standard technique, that could be further replicated for various studies. The experiment equipment includes a screen, a projector, automated workplaces of the experiment support team. Now it is exploring an anthropomorphic robot, created by the NPO "Android Technics", with which the GCTC has been cooperating for a long time. But in the future, the interaction of cosmonauts with any other space robots will be tested here.

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.