On June 5, 2020, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center trained the reserve crew of the “Soyuz MS-17” manned spacecraft, which was assigned due to the increased risk in the context of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Andrei Babkin.
The cosmonauts trained their spacecraft control skills on the “Soyuz MS” integrated simulator, taking into account possible emergency situations.
According to the instructor of the GCTC Dmitry Vovk, the training program planned for the crew, included the following operations: undocking from the International Space Station and urgent descent from low Earth orbit, which was necessary due to the “fire on the ship.”
The launch of the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-17” manned spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for October 2020.
The main crew of the 64th long expedition to the International Space Station included Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.
The backup crew included Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.
