Today, on July 19, 2019, a pre-launch press conference of the main and backup crews of the “Soyuz MS-13” manned spacecraft was held at the Test Training Center of the GCTC at Baikonur.

The cosmonauts and astronauts answered questions from the journalists, and also spoke about the plans for the upcoming expedition to the International Space Station and new experiments aboard the station.

Earlier today, the State Commission approved the crews of the “Soyuz MS-13” spacecraft.

The main crew – cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov (commander), astronauts Luca Parmitano (flight engineer-1) and Andrew Morgan (flight engineer-2).

Backup crew – cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Soichi Noguchi.

In accordance with the flight program of the International Space Station, on July 20, 2019, at 19:28 (Moscow time), the “Soyuz MS-13” spacecraft is scheduled to launch from site № 1 of the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Its docking to the ISS and approuching to the “Zvezda” module is planned to be performed automatically, it will be held at 01:50 (Moscow time) on July 21, 2019.

During the long expeditions ISS 60/61, the crew of the International Space Station will have to perform a large number of scientific experiments.

The crew will work with cargo ships from different countries, serve the ISS onboard systems, as well as carry out photo and video filming, etc.