This morning, on July 18, 2019, the “Soyuz-FG” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-13” spacecraft was rolled out from the Assembly and Testing building to the launch pad.
All operations were performed in strict accordance with the plan of work at the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Currently, the rocket has already been installed in the launch pad of the site № 1 (“Gagarinsky start”).
Work began on the program of the first launch day, and specialists of Roscosmos enterprises perform final technological operations at the launch complex.
Pre-launch tests of systems and assemblies of space rocket are conducted, the interaction of the onboard equipment and ground equipment is checked.
According to tradition, the backup crew (Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Marshburn and Soichi Noguchi) watched the events.
In addition to backup crew, the management of the Roscosmos State Corporation, families of cosmonauts, representatives of space agencies and enterprises of the rocket and space industry, journalists and tourists came to see the rocket roll out procedure.
The launch of the “Soyuz MS-13” with the crew of the expedition ISS-60/61 is scheduled for July 20, 2019 at 19:28 (Moscow time).
The main crew of the ISS includes Alexander Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan, their backups – Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Marshburne and Soichi Noguchi.
