Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov was approved for September flight to the ISS.
Earlier Roscosmos official representative Igor Burenkov said that Roscosmos has selected Aimbetov who had already started training in GCTC. At that final decision was to be taken by all ISS program participants.
According to the agreement between the President of Kazakhstan and Russian President on Kazakh citizen participation in the ISS program Aimbetov was approved for the flight.
Roscosmos has selected Aimbetov to take the seat of British singer Sarah Brightman. She was to go to the ISSas a space tourist by refused to take part in the flight for family reasons. Aimbetov who is at the present time 42 years old could go to the ISS in 2009 but Kazahstan postponed his participation in the project because of financing reduction.
The launch of Soyuz TMA-18M is scheduled for September 1, 2015, and will take place from Baikonur spaceport. Apart from Aimbetov the crew will comprise Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
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Jul 2, 2025
