The final stage of preparations of the prime and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-21 crewed spacecraft for a mission to the International Space Station under the ISS-66/67 Expedition program is beginning at the processing facility of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Today, planned activities on the crews’ preflight training at the Soyuz MS-21 worksite were performed at the integration and test facility of Site 254. After the introductory briefing, the cosmonauts performed a fit-check of their rescue spacesuits, leak-tested them and took their seats in the spacecraft for checking the support equipment, studying the flight program, getting familiar with the onboard documentation and cargoes to be delivered to the ISS. Further activities of the expedition participants at the processing facility include practice drills in dynamic operations including the manual approach of the spacecraft to the ISS, as well as monitoring the equipment and materials stowage.

The Soyuz MS-21 prime crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts: commander Оleg Аrtemyev and flight engineers Denis Мatveev and Sergey Korsakov. Their backups are Sergey Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina.

The launch of Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying Soyuz-MS-21 is slated for March 18, 2022. The spacecraft bears the name Korolev in memory of the founder of practical cosmonautics, academician Sergey Korolev.