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.

Russian scientists of the Institute for Biomedical Problems and NASA signed a Letter of intent about joint experiments on crew’s ground-based isolation in the framework of Mars and Moon missions. Currently frame contracts are being prepared, - said the spokesman for the Institute Mark Belakovsky.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskyi and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet are traveling to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft.

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.

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.

Baikonur saw official flag-raising ceremony. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko raised the flag of Russia, Alexander Misurkin and Nickolay Tikhonov – the flag of Kazakhstan, NASA astronauts Robert Shane Kimbrough and Mark Vande Hei – the flag of USA.

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.