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

Today, October 19, 2016, 11.05, Moscow time, Soyuz MS-02 manned spacecraft was successfully launched by Soyuz-FG booster from #31 launchpad of Baikonur launchsite with crew commander Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos) and flight engineers Andrei Borisenko (Roscosmos) and Robert Shane Kimbrough (NASA) onboard.

The specialists have completed all scheduled works to prepare Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft for the launch and future docking with the ISS, - Mission Control Centre specislists reported.

The launch of Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft initially scheduled for September 23 and postponed due to technical reasons was preliminarily scheduled for October 19, - the spokesman reported.

In case specialists manage to eliminate all the failures in Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and conduct additional testing necessary the launch can possibly take place within the period from October 12 to October 20, if not – it is planned to send Soyuz MS-03 to the ISS early November.

ussia informed NASA colleagues about the new possible date of Soyuz MS-02 launch. It will be November 01, 2016, instead of September 23, 2016.

Aspokesman to the Mission Control Center reported that the Soyuz TMA-20M space vehicle's reentry capsule with three crewmembers of the International Space Station has successfully landed in Kazakhstan.

On Wednesday, August 24, prime crew of Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft comprising crew commander Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos) and flight engineers Andrei Borisenko (Roscosmos) and Robert Shane Kimbrough (NASA) passed typical flight day training in GCTC.

Prime (Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough) and back-up (Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Nickolay Tikhonov, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai) crews of ISS-49/50 mission are finishing their exams in GCTC.

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