Interdepartmental Commission approved main and back-up crews of new ISS mission. The launch of Soyuz TMA-19M is scheduled for December 15 and will take place from Baikonur spaceport, - GCTC spokesman stated.

On Friday, November 20, GCTC specialists summed up the results of ISS-46/47 main and back-up crews exams.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi passed exam on manual controlled descent. TS-7 specialized simulator on the basis of Tsf-7 centrifuge was designed for practicing manual controlled descent in case automatics failure.

Japanese businessman Satoshi Takamatsu who has been passing preflight trainings in Star City is not going to fly to the ISS in September instead Sarah Brightman; he will continue training in Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre to become certified space flight participant in the future, - Space Adventures Company reports.

On Monday, June 15, NASA astronaut Peggy Witson training program was presented to GCTC. Woman-astronaut will be passing trainings together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet as a part of ISS-50/51 mission crew going to the ISS in November 2016. Preflight training will end up by examination session and complex examination training.

In two weeks Roscosmos is to take a decision who will replace British singer in Soyuz spacecraft flying to the ISS, - GCTC Head Yuri Lonchakov said on Monday.

Japanese space fan Satoshi Takamatsu won’t go to the International Space station on September 1 instead Sarah Brightman who cancelled her flight.

British singer Sarah Brightman announced that she is unable to perform a spacefight planned for family reasons (as stated in the message at her official webpage). "Sarah Brightman stated today that she postpones her participation in the upcoming space mission onboard Soyuz TMA-18M. Brightman stated that she has to change her intentions for family reasons and postpones her training and participation in the flight for today".

On May 6, 2015 of 44/45 mission main and back-up crew started passing complex examinational trainings in GCTC.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka expects to set up a new record spending 1000 days on the orbit, as he told the journalists at press-conference taking place in Star City on Friday.