In June 2018, it will be the 55 years anniversary of the flight of the world's first female cosmonaut. It was performed on June 16, 1963, and this achievement belongs to Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, Hero of the Soviet Union, candidate of technical sciences, professor of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, Major-General of Aviation.

The "Soyuz MS-09" spacecraft on June 8, 2018 successfully docked to the docking site of the research module "Rassvet" of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The ship's approach to the station was performed on a a two-day scheme according to the flight program. The rapprochement was carried out in an automatic mode under the supervision of the specialists of the Main Operational Group for the Management of the Russian Segment of the ISS in the Mission Control Center and Russian crew members of spacecraft and station.

Today on June 6, 2018 at 14:12 (Moscow time) at Baikonur cosmodrome from the launchpad № 1 ("Gagarinsky start") launched a carrier rocket “Soyuz-FG” with a "Soyuz MS-09" spacecraft. After 8 minutes and 48 seconds, the ” Soyuz MS-09” spacecraft was completely separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle in a given near-earth orbit and continued its autonomous flight to the International Space Station under the supervision of specialists from the Russian Flight Mission Control Center.

On June 4, 2018, at the Baikonur cosmodrome, specialists of Roscosmos enterprises rolled out to the launch site a “Soyuz-FG” carrier rocket with a “Soyuz MS-09” spacecraft. After the rocket was installed in the launch system and the service farms were attached, the specialists of the Roscosmos enterprises started to work according to the schedule of the first starting day.

On June 3, 2018, the members of the crew of the "Soyuz MS-07" spacecraft and the expeditions ISS-54/55 returned safely to Earth. The descent vehicle with the Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai landed in the Kazakhstan at 15:39:42 Moscow time.

On May 25 the delegation of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency led by JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa visited the Cosmonaut Training Center. Within the framework of the meeting with the head of GCTC, Hero of the Russian Federation, the honored test pilot of the Russian Federation Pavel Vlasov, further cooperation in the training of cosmonauts and astronauts in the crews was discussed. Hiroshi Yamakawa and Pavel Vlasov noted the need for full-fledged cooperation in the implementation of such a grandiose international project as the ISS.

On February 5, 2018, NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi were introduced to GCTC authorities and specialists and started training in GCTC on Soyuz MS simulator and Russian ISS segment simulator to be second flight engineers in the future space missions.

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.

New Soyuz MS was launched from Baikonur launchsite on July 07, 07.36, local time. After successful docking on July 09, Anatoly Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Kathleen Rubins (NASA) and Takuya Onishi (JAXA) joined Oleg Skripochka (Roscosmos), Alexei Ovchinin (Roscosmos) and Jeffrey Williams (NASA) onboard the ISS.

One more ISS crew successfully completed training on survival in marshy and forested area. For three days Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky, NASA astronaut Randolph Bresnik and JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai have been accomplishing the tasks set under severe weather conditions.