On Sunday, September 18, 2022, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft (K.E. Tsiolkovsky) was transported to the launch complex of the 31st site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
By tradition, the roll-out of the rocket from the assembly and test building began at 05:30 Moscow time (at 07:30 local time). After it was installed in a vertical position and the service towers at the launch complex were brought together, the joint crew of the enterprises of the State Corporation Roscosmos began preparations for the launch.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is scheduled for September 21, 2022. The crew includes members of the 68th long-term expedition to the International Space Station — Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio.
The ship “Soyuz MS-22” is named “K.E. Tsiolkovsky” in honor of the 165th anniversary of the birth of the Russian scientist, inventor and founder of the theory of space exploration Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. On the head fairing of the rocket there is an emblem with a portrait of a scientist and the inscription “165 years since the birth of K.E. Tsiolkovsky.
Thus, Roskosmos continues the tradition of naming Soyuz spacecrafts. In March 2022, the Soyuz MS-21, named after the chief designer of rocket and space technology Sergei Korolev, flew to the ISS, and in April 2011 and April 2021, respectively, the Soyuz TMA-21 and Soyuz MS -18 were named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
