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.

Roscosmos and NASA Advisory board joint commission started working to determine future work streams of ISS project, - Roscosmos press office reported.

New Soyuz MS was launched from Baikonur launchsite on July 07, 07.36, local time. After successful docking on July 09, Anatoly Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Kathleen Rubins (NASA) and Takuya Onishi (JAXA) joined Oleg Skripochka (Roscosmos), Alexei Ovchinin (Roscosmos) and Jeffrey Williams (NASA) onboard the ISS.

Soyuz TMA-19M descent capsule with Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra and ESA astronaut Timothy Peake successfully landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan to 147 km of Jezkazgan town on June 18, 2016, 12.15, Moscow time, - MCC spokesman reported.

Proton-M booster with American telecommunication satellite Intelsat DLA-2 was successfully launched from Baikonur spaceport today, on Thursday, June 09, at 10.10, Moscow time.

The launch of Proton-M booster with American EchoStar telecommunication satellite is scheduled for August 2016, - Khrunichev Centre representative reported.