According to press-service of Gagarin Cosmonaut Trainin Center, on May 26, 2013, following the launch preparation plan Soyuz space rocket was rolled out and installed on the launch pad. At night from May 28 to May 29, 2013 Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft with 36/37 ISS mission crew (Fyodor Yurchikhin (Roscosmos), Luca Parmitano (ESA), Caren Nyberg (NASA)) onboard will be set into the orbit with the help of Soyuz-FG rocket-booster.
In the morning back-up crew (Mikhail Tyurin – Roscosmos, Rick Mastracchio – NASA, Koichi Wakata – JAXA) and GCTC specialists arrived at railway-crossing at the territory of Baikonur cosmodrome.
Representatives of various space agencies and space industry enterprises, journalists, relatives and friends of crew members also came to watch the transfer of the rocket to the launchpad №1 (Gagarinsky launchpad). Early in the morning railmotor car with rocket started moving from integration and checkout building to Gagarinsky launchpad at the rate under 5 km/h.
All works were carried out in a nominal way according to the timeline. May 26, 2013 is considered to be the first launch day for the crew.
Image credit – Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
