ISS-47/48 crew going to space in March started passing preflight training in GCTC. The prime crew comprises Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams, the back-up crew – Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko and NASA astronaut Robert Kimbrough.

Russian cosmonauts S. Ryzhikov and A. Borisenko were the first to pass exams on Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft manual descent showing profound knowledge of theory and good practical skills. A. Ovchinin and O. Skripochka will be the next to pass this training.

Prime and back-up crew commanders successfully passed exams on Teleoperator simulator. A. Ovchinin and S. Ryzhikov examination cards stipulated a series of off-nominal situation causing automated approach system failure. Thus in the course of the training the cosmonauts controlled Progress M-M cargo vehicle approach to the ISS in automated mode and accomplished rendezvous and docking  in remote control mode. Their  tasks were to control Progress motions, its systems and to provide for Progress re-approach to the ISS.

Both prime and back-up crews have a busy exams schedule including training on Soyuz manual approach to the ISS and redocking and scientific program of the mission. They also continue their trainings on Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft and Russian ISS segment simulators,  preparation for scientific and medical experiments to be conducted onboard and medical trainings to prepare body for spaceflight impact.