On June 17, 2018 at 00:46 (Moscow time) from the State Test Cosmodrome “Plesetsk” military crew of the Russian Space Forces launched a space rocket , that include a “Soyuz-2.1b” launch vehicle, the “Fregat” booster block and “Glonass-M” Russian navigation spacecraft. The launch was conducted under the general supervision of the commander of the Space Forces, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Air and Space Forces, Colonel- General Alexander Golovko. The launch of the launch vehicle and the launch of the spacecraft into the calculated orbit were held in the regular mode.

The "Soyuz MS-09" spacecraft on June 8, 2018 successfully docked to the docking site of the research module "Rassvet" of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The ship's approach to the station was performed on a a two-day scheme according to the flight program. The rapprochement was carried out in an automatic mode under the supervision of the specialists of the Main Operational Group for the Management of the Russian Segment of the ISS in the Mission Control Center and Russian crew members of spacecraft and station.

On June 3, 2018, the members of the crew of the "Soyuz MS-07" spacecraft and the expeditions ISS-54/55 returned safely to Earth. The descent vehicle with the Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai landed in the Kazakhstan at 15:39:42 Moscow time.

On Wednesday, May 30, the cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Leonov celebrates his birthday.

On May 29, 2018, as part of the prelaunch training program, the crews of “Soyuz MS-09” spacecraft conducted open training sessions attended by representatives of the media. Cosmonauts and astronauts of the main and backup crews Sergei Prokopiev, Oleg Kononenko, Alexander Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Anne Macclein and David Saint-Jacques held training sessions at the multi-purpose stand for manual approach of the” Soyuz MS” spacecraft, training on the on-board documentation of the spacecraft , got training of the factors of space flight on special simulators and sports training.

Specialists of RSC “Energia” at the Baikonur cosmodrome successfully completed the operations for refueling the transport manned spacecraft “ Soyuz MS-09” with fuel components and compressed gases.

On May 21, 2018, on the territory of the test training complex (17th site) of the Baikonur complex, at the flag-raising ceremony of the countries, participating in the launch of the Soyuz MS-09 transport manned spacecraft, the final phase of preflight preparation of crews was officially launched .

Since the beginning of our space era, cosmonauts have formed many wonderful traditions, that provide a connection between times and generations. Among them - a visit of a Museum of the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yuri Gagarin and Red Square before departure at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Russian scientists of the Institute for Biomedical Problems and NASA signed a Letter of intent about joint experiments on crew’s ground-based isolation in the framework of Mars and Moon missions. Currently frame contracts are being prepared, - said the spokesman for the Institute Mark Belakovsky.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskyi and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet are traveling to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft.