During previous 2 weeks cosmonauts and astronauts have been passing exams on manual docking, approaching and descending of Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft and practiced manual remote control mode. According to the program for space flight preparations main and back-up crews have to experience standard flight day.

NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins with the help of japanese colleague Koichi Wakata undocked the spacecraft using Canadarm manipulator. Cygnys spacecraft designed by Orbital Sciences company was the second private spacecraft after Dragon made by SpaceX.

The landing of Soyuz TMA-10M manned spacecraft with Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazansky (Roscosmos) and Michael Hopkins (NASA) onboard was shifted from March 12 to March 11. Tha place of lamding was also changed because of great amount of snow in Arkalyk region where descent module was initially planned to land.

The NORD instrument designed by Russia’s Space Research Institute was one of 58 proposals submitted to NASA earlier this month for inclusion on the agency’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover. NASA is due to announce the chosen experiments in March.

Russian Cosmonauts completed their preflight trainings in NASA Johnson Space Centre on January 23, 2014

In accordance with training conditions the crew has to perform the following operations: changing clothes inside the descent module, building shelters, signaling to search aircrafts, medical treatment of the injured person and cooperation with the search and rescue teams.

The White House has extanded the USA participation in the International Space Station project until 2024, as reported on the…

The docking of American Cygnus cargo vehicle with the ISS may be put off because of ISS thermal control system pump failure, - NASA representative reported from MCC Russia.

The International Space Station is a stronghold of the mankind on the orbit. It goes round the Earth 16 times a day at the height of about 400 km. The ISS is the largest flying object, designed by leading space countries.

The final stage of pre-flight training of Soyuz TMA-11M crew that will soon join the team working onboard the International…