Progress Rocket and Space Centre started assembling Soyuz-2.1a that is to be the first booster launched from new Russian spaceport Vostochny in Amur region. The booster will be ready for transportation to Vostochny in June, the works on the rocket are being accomplished according to the schedule, - Progress Rocket and Space Centre spokesman reports.

Russian orbital station is to be developed by 2023, - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during live call-in.

Today, on April 15, 2015, 43 ISS mission flight engineer Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko celebrates his 55th Birthday!

Space industry specialists go on working in accordance with the ISS flight schedule. On April 14, 2015 in the integration building of #254 launchpad RSC Energia specialists conducted final operations necessary to prepare Progress M-27M cargo vehicle for the filling with propellant components and pressurized gas: loaded cargoes, conducted mass calibration of the vehicle, docked it with the adapter module and placed the vehicle onto the transportation and installation unit that will transport it to the filling area.

Russia keeps leading position in the field of space launches, Roscosmos Head Igor komarov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The first launch of Angara-A5V heavy booster will take place in 2021, - Roscosmos Head Igor Komarov stated.

On April 10, 2015, in the integration building of #31 launchpad Progress rocket and space Centre and Yuzhny space centre specialists started preparing Soyuz-2.1a booster for the launch of Progress M-27M cargo vehicle. First, second and third stages of the booster are already placed on the working place, the first stage is being prepared for pneumatic tests.

Today on March 18, 2015, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk in the history of mankind performed by Russian cosmonaut Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov.

On March 14 ISS-42/44 mission main (Gennady Padalka, Roscosmos; Mikhail Korniyenko, Roscosmos; Scott Kelly, NASA) and back-up (Alexey Ovchinin, Roscosmos; Sergey Volkov, Roscosmos; Jeffrey Williams, NASA) crews left for Baikonur from Chkalovsky airfield onboard special charters. In several hours the aircrafts successfully landed at Krainiy airfield not far from Baikonur where the cosmonauts will pass their final preparation trainings before the flight.

Today on March 18 ISS-41/42 crew comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Elena Serova and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore successfully returned to the Earth onboard Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft after half a year space mission. Descent module landed 147 km to the southeast of Zhezkazgan town (Kazakhstan) at 05.14, Moscow time.