On the morning of March 24, 2020, the ceremony of seeing off the main and backup crews of the 63rd long expedition to the International Space Station, departing to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, took place at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
The members of the main crew are Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Wagner, Christopher Cassidy, their backups: Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Babkin and Stephen Bowen.
A few hours later they arrived at Baikonur to complete the prelaunch preparations.
The crew commanders reported to the members of the Technical Management and the State Commission about the readiness for training, after which they went to the GCTC Test and Training Complex.
Within two weeks they have to go through a set of trainings, classes and briefings, as well as medical examinations.
On Wednesday, March 25, the main and backup crews will conduct the first “fitting” (training) in the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft.
They will need to work out the mechanism of action on the ground, get acquainted with the on-board documentation and perform a series of tests of on-board systems.
The launch of the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-16” spacecraft is scheduled for April 9 at 11:05 (Moscow time) from platform № 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
