The ceremony of presenting of State awards of the Russian Federation took place on May 23 in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin. The govermental awards were presented for Russian cosmonauts Fedor Yurchikhin (who made five expeditions to the ISS and nine spacewalks), Andrey Borisenko and Oleg Novitsky (who performed two space flights each).

Spacewalk is dangerous and hard job. The necessary skills are helped to form a training on the specialized "Exit-2" simulator, where cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov (backup of Alexander Skvortsov) successfully completed the test session this week. Sergey Ryzhikov’s readiness to work in open space was checked by GCTC specialists and representatives of RSC "Energia". During the test training, Sergey Ryzhikov showed a good level of theoretical knowledge and practical skills for performing typical operations in open space.

On April 19 the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center was visited by the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, headed by Dr. Salah Khalid K. Al-Taleb, Director of the Space Strategy Department of the Saudi Space Committee. For the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a tour of the simulator base of the Center was organized, during which they familiarized themselves with the features of cosmonaut training for space flight. For the guests were shown specialized simulators of the "Soyuz" spacecraft, the Russian segment of the International Space Station, the "Exit-2" simulator and the CF-18 centrifuge. In addition, representatives of the delegation studied the reconfigurable simulator of airplanes and helicopters and the model of the "MIR" space station at the Space Center.

This year is a year of remarkable space anniversaries. And the main one is 85 years since the birth of the first cosmonaut of the Earth, Yuri Gagarin, celebrated in March. Having completed the flight, the descent module with Yuri Gagarin landed in the Saratov region. From that region on the Volga river, the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova brought as a gift to GCTC the tree seedlings. And on April 18 Valentina Tereshkova with a cosmonauts, the management and staff of the Center, planted this tree seedlings on the alley near the monument, where the ceremonial farewell of the crews usually take place. Valentina Tereshkova suggested to make traditional planting of trees not only at Baikonur, but also at the GCTC. This will be not only as a honour to the name of Yuri Gagarin, but will also bring real benefits to the nature of Star City.

The cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov continues training tests in the GCTC. Alexander Skvortsov is preparing to fly in the main crew, which is scheduled to start in July of this year. During the training course, Alexander Skvortsov showed a confidently high level of knowledge and skills to perform a training cyclogram, having done well all the tasks.

Every year, on March 27, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and Star City pay tribute to the Heroes of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonauts, Colonel Yuri Gagarin and military pilot, 1st class test pilot, Colonel Vladimir Seregin. On this day in 1968, a MiG-15 UTI fighter crashed near the village of Novoselovo, Vladimir region, Russia, killing Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Seregin. Traditionally, on the Day of Memory of Gagarin and Seregin, on March 27, family members, cosmonauts, veterans and Center staff take part in a number of events.

Less than a month is left before the launch of the "Soyuz MS-12" spacecraft. Yesterday at the GCTC was the second day of complex examination exercises, based on which will be decided to continue preflight crew training at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Encouraged by the “excellent” grade for the first examination training on the ISS, the main crew of the ISS-59/60 began today the final day of testing on the "Soyuz" spacecraft simulator. At the end of exams of the main crew of the ISS-59/60 the commission summarized the results of the second exam day.

The main crew of the ISS approached the most important stage of preparation at the GCTC - the complex exam training. During the examination session, the commission assesses the actions of the crew in the work with the equipment and life support systems at the station. The exam result also determines the reaction of future participants of a long expedition to emergency situations. The crew must timely detect the failure or mismatch of the ISS systems, determine the nature of the incident and promptly make a decision to get out of this situation. From the quality of their actions depends the score for the exam day.

On February 15, the GCTC was visited by the delegation of the Italian Embassy, headed by the Italian Ambassador in Russia Pasquale Terracciano. During the visit, the development of cooperation between the Italian Air Force and the Cosmonaut Training Center was discussed. During the excursion, Pasquale Terracciano and the embassy staff visited the halls of "Soyuz" spacecraft, Russian segment of the ISS, Space Center, "Exit-2" simulators and the "CF-18" centrifuge.

Having successfully passed the exams on manual control of transport manned and cargo spaceships, the main crew of the ISS this Monday continued to pass the "space" exams. The working week of "Soyuz MS-12" commander Alexey Ovchinin and flight engineer Nick Hague began with the manual-controlled descent exam on the TC-7 simulator, based on the CF-7 centrifuge base. Taking into account that Alexey and Nick passed such exam on the Soyuz spacecraft several months ago as part of "Soyuz MS-10" crew training, the high level of their knowledge and skills during the training was rated by the commission as “excellent”. The examination week of the main crew of the ISS continued with a test of knowledge of the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The two-week training sessions for the main crew of the ISS were the final training for the complex exams, which are to be held by Alexey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch after one week.