The Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, completing the first manned flight to the International Space Station. It touched the water at the estimated 21:48 Moscow time.

The crew of the 64th long-term expedition to the International Space Station will undergo joint training at the Cosmonaut Training Center in preparation for the flight, which is scheduled to begin in October this year. The ISS-64 crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins. The backup crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai.

45 years ago, on July 15, 1975, the first joint space flight of representatives of different countries started in the history of mankind. The start of the Soyuz Apollon pilot project was laid on October 26-27, 1970. At this time, Moscow hosted the first meeting of Soviet and American experts on the compatibility of the means of approaching and docking of manned spacecraft.

SpaceX Crew Dragon manned mission launch from Cape Canaveral initially planned for May 27 was shifted due to the low cloud ceiling. New attempt is to be made on May 30.

At the NPO "Energomash" (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) on December 6, 2019 representatives of the American company "Orbital Sciences Corporation" signed the documents for the next batch of four engines RD-181.

Petr Levochkin, chief designer of NPO "Energomash, designer and manufacturer of the famous "RD-180" family of engines, commented on the PR statement of Elon Musk about the “superiority” of "Raptor" engine, created by SpaceX: “The SpaceX company creates the "Raptor" engine on oxygen and methane components or, as is customary in the Russian classification, the gas-gas scheme. In such schemes, such a pressure level in the combustion chamber is not something extraordinary - in our designs for these schemes we lay down the pressure level in the chamber over 300 atmospheres. However, Mr. Musk, not being a technical specialist, does not take into account that the "RD-180" engine for the Atlas launch vehicle uses a completely different fuel circuit - “oxygen-kerosene”, and these are another parameters of the engine operation. It is like comparing a diesel and a gasoline internal combustion engine. Despite the fact, that our companies are competitors, we as engineers welcome the first successes of colleagues from SpaceX in the field of rocket engine building. Indeed, during the development of the Raptor engine, American engineers reached a record pressure level in the chamber. This indicates a fairly high level of development and production processes at SpaceX. ”

On January 28, the RD-180 rocket engine was successfully tested in the Scientific Testing Complex of NPO "Energomash" JSC. The liquid-propellant rocket engine RD-180 was developed and produced by NPO "Energomash". The engine designed for use in the US "Atlas" family of launch vehicles.

Today, on May 31, as part of the preparation of the "Soyuz MS-09" spacecraft for launch under the International Space Station program, the members of the main and backup crews conducted a so-called "second fitting" - a control inspection of the ship in the starting configuration.

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.

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.