At the Baikonur cosmodrome intensive works continues on the upcoming launches of spacecrafts to the International Space Station (ISS), which are scheduled before the end of this summer.
In the Assembly and Testing building of the launch vehicles the mechanical assembly of the “package” (first and second stages parts) of the “Soyuz-FG” launch vehicle was completed.
On July 20, 2019, it will put into orbit a manned spacecraft “Soyuz MS-13” with members of a new long expedition to the ISS.
The main crew – cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, astronauts Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan, their backups – Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Marshburn and Soichi Noguchi.
In parallel, the next spaceship “Soyuz MS-14” is being prepared for launch.
Specialists of Roscosmos enterprises performedt its unloading from the transportation car and installed it in a test jig.
In the near future an inspection of the “Soyuz” and the connection of communications to ground test equipment will be performed.
Its launch is scheduled for August 22, 2019.
It will be in an unmanned mode and will become a test for the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle, because before it put only cargo ships and space vehicles of various purposes into orbit.