Today at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center was a farewell ceremony of the crew of the ISS-63 to Baikonur.

In a few weeks, Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Wagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy will go into orbit.

Traditionally, on this day, the farewell related not only to the main crew, but also backups – Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Babkin and NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen.

Yesterday, on March 23, 2020 after a meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission, the cosmonauts of the upcoming expedition to the International Space Station visited Yuri Gagarin’s office in the museum of the Cosmonaut Training Center, where everyone left his sign in the crew’s pre-launch book.

The end of the program of the day was the laying of flowers at the monument to the first cosmonaut of the world Yuri Gagarin.

Today after breakfast, in the circle of colleagues and relatives, the crews proceeded along the alley to Lenin monument, where they made memorable photos.

Due to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, adjustments were made to the plan for some pre-flight events, including the crew’s communication with the media was canceled.

Following all the measures of medical prevention, crews and representatives of the GCTC, representatives of space agencies, as well as friends, relatives and colleagues came to carry out crews to Baikonur for pre-launch training.

The launch of the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft with the crew of the long-term expedition to the International Space Station is scheduled for April 9, 2020.

The planned flight duration is 196 days.