On October 11, Soyuz-2.1a booster was rolled out from the integration building and installed onto the launchpad #31. On October 14 the booster will insert into the orbit Soyuz MS-17 manned vehicle with an international crew comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.

Aaccording to the ISS flight program next Wednesday Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft will be launched from Baikonur by Soyuz-2.1a booster. On October 07 the crews conducted final fit-check of the spacecraft at the pad #254 of Baikonur launchsite.

On Sunday, September 27, ISS-64 mission crews both prime and back-up left for Baikonur from Chkalovsky airfield located in Moscow region by two different planes. In several hours the planes successfully landed at Krainy airfield.

Soyuz MS-17 prime and back-up crews successfully passed exams in GCTC, - press-office representative reported. “Both prime comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins and back-up crew including Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Bovitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai successfully passed two-weeks long examination session getting an “excellent” mark”, - the source stated.

Russia offers space tourists flights to the International Space Station under an expanded program with an extended stay on the ISS - up to one month, said Dmitry Loskutov, General Director of Glavkosmos (a Roscosmos enterprise).

A month and a half before the launch, the main and backup crews of the 64th long-term expedition to the International Space Station began practical exams at the Yu.A. Gagarin. Already in three weeks, the "Favorites" and "Kazbeks" (call signs of the main and backup crews, respectively) will have complex examination trainings, which will complete the stage of pre-flight preparation before leaving for Baikonur.

Training in the TBK-50 pressure chamber allows cosmonauts to develop the skill of assessing the fit of a spacesuit, evaluate the work of the thermal control system under different physical loads, and undergo psychological adaptation to the forthcoming work in outer space. For operators, this is a unique opportunity, being on Earth, to gain experience in a spacesuit that fully matches the flight suit - exactly the same as on board the International Space Station.

The first ever crew of the International Space Station, consisting only of Russian cosmonauts, can fly on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft in the spring of 2021, a source in the rocket and space industry said. Earlier it became known that the launch of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft by the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle from the Baikonur cosmodrome is scheduled for April 10, 2021.

NUST MISIS specialists will take part in the design of an alternative spacesuit for the crew members of the new Russian spacecraft Orel, said Vladimir Pirozhkov, director of the Kinetics Engineering Center for High Complexity Prototyping at the National Research Technological University MISIS, industrial designer.

The preliminary date of the first launch of satellites of the Russian low-orbit communication system "Gonets" on the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket has been determined, the launch is scheduled for September 24, a source in the rocket and space industry told.