A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a trio of crew members is scheduled to dock automatically with the International Space Station on Friday.

Soyuz TMA-12M with new ISS mission crew comprised by Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos) and Stephen Swanson (NASA) was successfully launched from “Gagarin” launchpad of Baikonur spaceport with the help of Soyuz-FG booster.

Soyuz FG booster was successfully rolled out and installed on #1 launching pad (Gagarin launch) of Baikonur spaceport on March 23.

New ISS mission crew leaving for the station on March 26 carried out demonstrational training on Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft for the journalists.

The day of March 15 started with flag-raising ceremony that has become a longstanding tradition symbolizing formal beginning of final stage of preflight preparation trainings. Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev raised the flag of Russia while NASA astronauts Stephen Swanson and Barry Wilmore – the flag of USA and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Elena Serova – the flag of Kazakhstan.

Satellite robots making photos of the ISS outer surface could be of great help for the cosmonauts at the first stages than android robot developed by one of the space industry enterprises, - cosmonaut Oleg Kotov said, who returned from the spaceflight this Tuesday.

Today Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre saw formal farewell ceremony of main and back-up crews of ISS-39/40 mission leaving for Baikonur spaceport for further preflight trainings.

ISS orbit was increased by 2 kilometers with the help of Progress M-21M cargo vehicle thrusters, - Mission Control Centre representatives reported.

Preparation works for the manned launch are under way at Baikonur spaceport. Yuzhny space centre operational crews started preparing equipment…

Soyuz TMA-10M crew consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazansky and NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins successfully landed in Kazakhstan