On Wednesday, May 30, the cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Leonov celebrates his birthday.

On May 29, 2018, as part of the prelaunch training program, the crews of “Soyuz MS-09” spacecraft conducted open training sessions attended by representatives of the media. Cosmonauts and astronauts of the main and backup crews Sergei Prokopiev, Oleg Kononenko, Alexander Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Anne Macclein and David Saint-Jacques held training sessions at the multi-purpose stand for manual approach of the” Soyuz MS” spacecraft, training on the on-board documentation of the spacecraft , got training of the factors of space flight on special simulators and sports training.

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin to head the state corporation ”Roskosmos”. Putin's meeting with Rogozin took place in the fields of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2018). "We have repeatedly and for a long time discussed the development of “Roskosmos”. It is not necessary to say how important it is for the economy, for many other areas, including the sphere of security " - said the President of the Russian Federation.

Specialists of RSC “Energia” at the Baikonur cosmodrome successfully completed the operations for refueling the transport manned spacecraft “ Soyuz MS-09” with fuel components and compressed gases.

The launch of the "Soyuz MS" spacecraft on the” Soyuz-2.1a” rocket is scheduled for August 2019. The flight of the ship will pass in unmanned mode, which will allow several times to increase the payload due to the lack of a part of the instruments and units, necessary to support the work of the crew.

Energia Rocket and Space Corporation specialists filled Progress mS-05 cargo vehicle with propellant components and pressurized gas at Baikonur launchsite.

First manned launch to the ISS according to two-orbit rendezvous scheme will probably take place in 2019 RSC Energia specialist Raphail Murtazin stated.

Roscosmos started developing new super-heavy booster, - mass media representatives reported with reference to RSC Energia Director General Vladimir Solntsev.

According to Khrunichev Centre Deputy Director Alexander Medvedev financing the development of new Phoenix booster with carrying capacity from 9 to 15 tons will start in 2018.

On Friday GCTC saw press-conference of ISS-47/48 mission crews. Before the presss conference Interdepartmental Commission meeting Roscosmos, GCTC, RSC Energia and Federal Bio-Medical Agency representatives were taking part in approved the crews for further preflight preparations at Baikonur. The main crew of Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft comproses Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams, the back-up crew – Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko and NASA astronaut Robert Kimbrough.