On April 4, 2020, meetings of the Technical Management and the State Commission were held at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where they examined the readiness of the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft to be rolled out to the launch pad of site № 31.

After hearing reports on test results, a decision was made for roll out on April 6, 2020.

Earlier, in the Assembly and Testing building, specialists from the enterprises of Roscosmos State Corporation completed the general assembly of the “Soyuz-2.1a” space rocket.

For this, the head part was docked to the third stage, after which the installation of the propulsion system of the emergency rescue system was carried out.

In the afternoon, the assy was transferred to the transport and installation unit and docked with a “package” of the first and second stages.

The launch of the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft and the crew of the long-term expedition to the International Space Station is scheduled for April 9, 2020 at 11:05:06 (Moscow time).

The main crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner, NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.

Their backups: Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Babkin and Stephen Bowen.