From the territory of the Lavochkin NPO (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) 3 containers were dispatched with "Fregat-M" upper stages.

Today, on July 25, 2019, the head unit with a ship was transported to the Assembly and Testing building of launch vehicles for a general assembly with the "Soyuz-2.1a" rocket. The launch of the "Progress MS-12" cargo spaceship under the International Space Station program is scheduled for July 31, 2019.

The acceptance commission of the next batch of RD-180 engines, manufactured by NPO "Energomash" has successfully completed its work. Liquid rocket engine RD-180 is designed and manufactured by NPO "Energomash". It is using in the US "Atlas" family of launch vehicles.

On May 27 specialists of the Vostochny Space Center (TsENKI company branch) together with the Progress Space Center (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) started the preparation of the "Soyuz-2.1b" launch vehicle component parts for launch. In the Assembly and Testing building of the launch vehicles of the Technical Complex joint team of the representatives of the enterprises of the rocket and space industry started works on removing the thermopackage from the units, external inspection and transfer of the launch vehicle units to the workplace. The "Soyuz-2.1b" launch vehicle will launch the "Meteor-M" № 2-2 spacecraft into orbit. This will be the fifth launch from the newest Russian cosmodrome. The first launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome took place on April 28, 2016.

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.

On April 17, 2019, the visit to Russia of Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Prince of Saudi Arabia, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi space committe took place. The Saudi delegation also included representatives of the Space Agency and the King Abdulaziz Science and Technology Center. During the meeting, the parties discussed the potential possibilities of bilateral cooperation in the field of peaceful exploration and use of space. Saudi partners have shown interest in deepening relations between the two countries on a number of topics, such as manned cosmonautics, navigation satellite systems (and related technologies and services), Earth remote sensing and the joint development of space technology and ground-based space infrastructure.

On the 12th of April the spaceship «Vostok-1» was launched into space with Yuri Gagarin on board and after orbiting our planet successfully returned to the Earth. It was 108 minutes that changed the world! From RussianSpaceNews.com team we congratulates all professionals of space industry and just the fans of the cosmonautics with this main holiday!

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.

The management of the GCTC, under the leadership of the head of the Center Pavel Vlasov, met with the delegation of the Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research Institute) (MAI) under the leadership of Rector Mikhail Pogosyan to discuss the possibilities and areas for further cooperation. The main objective of the meeting held in the GCTC was to increase the level of training, conduct joint research and improve the training and test base. As a result of the meeting, it was decided to establish working groups for the development of a “roadmap” of cooperation. MAI is a leader among civilian universities in the number of graduates, who have become cosmonauts and specialists in the rocket and space industry.

Petr Levochkin, chief designer of NPO "Energomash, designer and manufacturer of the famous "RD-180" family of engines, commented on the PR statement of Elon Musk about the “superiority” of "Raptor" engine, created by SpaceX: “The SpaceX company creates the "Raptor" engine on oxygen and methane components or, as is customary in the Russian classification, the gas-gas scheme. In such schemes, such a pressure level in the combustion chamber is not something extraordinary - in our designs for these schemes we lay down the pressure level in the chamber over 300 atmospheres. However, Mr. Musk, not being a technical specialist, does not take into account that the "RD-180" engine for the Atlas launch vehicle uses a completely different fuel circuit - “oxygen-kerosene”, and these are another parameters of the engine operation. It is like comparing a diesel and a gasoline internal combustion engine. Despite the fact, that our companies are competitors, we as engineers welcome the first successes of colleagues from SpaceX in the field of rocket engine building. Indeed, during the development of the Raptor engine, American engineers reached a record pressure level in the chamber. This indicates a fairly high level of development and production processes at SpaceX. ”