The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-16 crewed spacecraft is scheduled to launch on April 9, 2020 at 08:05:06 UTC. https://youtu.be/GRPGbfxTN94

86 years ago, on March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky (now Gagarin) district of the Smolensk region, the first cosmonaut of the planet Yuri Gagarin was born - a special person not only for those who connected their lives with space, but also for all people in the world.

On April 17, 2019, the visit to Russia of Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Prince of Saudi Arabia, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi space committe took place. The Saudi delegation also included representatives of the Space Agency and the King Abdulaziz Science and Technology Center. During the meeting, the parties discussed the potential possibilities of bilateral cooperation in the field of peaceful exploration and use of space. Saudi partners have shown interest in deepening relations between the two countries on a number of topics, such as manned cosmonautics, navigation satellite systems (and related technologies and services), Earth remote sensing and the joint development of space technology and ground-based space infrastructure.

The first in the history private manned spacecraft "Crew Dragon", produced by the American company "SpaceX", made docking with the International Space Station (ISS)., the ISS’s Twitter account reports on Sunday, March 3. "Crew Dragon", or "Dragon-2", is a private spacecraft of the American company "SpaceX", developed by order of NASA, designed to deliver astronauts to the ISS and return to Earth. It was put into orbit in test mode on March 2 by the "Falcon 9" launch vehicle.

The Roscosmos State Corporation and the American company Space Adventures, Inc. have signed a contract for short-term space flights to the International Space Station (ISS) of two non-professional cosmonauts on one ship. The industry has already begun to create the "Soyuz" spacecraft and the "Soyuz-2" launch vehicle for the flight of tourists into space. The implementation of all space technology will be carried out at the expense of space tourists.

On January 11, 2019, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre celebrates 59th anniversary.

On October 25 at 03.15 Moscow time Russian Aerospace Forces operational crew successfully launched Soyuz -2.1b booster with Russian Ministry of Defense satellite from Plesetsk launchsite located in Arkhalgelsk region.

October 24 is considered to be the black day in the history of Russian space exploration. On this date within three years period Russian cosmonautics faced two terrible accidents with heavy losses. Since then no launches are planned for this date and more over no serious maintenance operations are accomplished. October 24 is also considered to be as fallen rocket specialists memorial day.

On June 17, 2018 at 00:46 (Moscow time) from the State Test Cosmodrome “Plesetsk” military crew of the Russian Space Forces launched a space rocket , that include a “Soyuz-2.1b” launch vehicle, the “Fregat” booster block and “Glonass-M” Russian navigation spacecraft. The launch was conducted under the general supervision of the commander of the Space Forces, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Air and Space Forces, Colonel- General Alexander Golovko. The launch of the launch vehicle and the launch of the spacecraft into the calculated orbit were held in the regular mode.

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.