The final stage of preparation for the flight of the main and backup crews of the forthcoming expedition to the International Space Station has begun on Baikonur.
On September 11, 2019, cosmonauts and astronauts arrived in the Assembly and Testing building of the site № 254 of the cosmodrome for the first training session in the “Soyuz MS-15” spacecraft.
In accordance with the training schedule, Oleg Skrypochka, Jessica Meir, Hazza Al Mansouri, as well as Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Marshburn and Sultan Al Neyadi tried their spacesuits, tested them for leaks and took places in the “Soyuz”.
In addition, they checked the equipment, with which they will work on orbit, got acquainted with the on-board documentation, studied the flight program and the list of cargoes, planned for delivery to the ISS.
Over the next two weeks, it is planned to train on the manual docking of the ship to the International Space Station, control of the cargo with scientific equipment, practice the upcoming ballistic operations and other preparatory procedures.
The launch of the “Soyuz-FG” launch vehicle with the “Soyuz MS-15” spacecraft is scheduled for September 25, 2019 from the Gagarinsky launch pad (site № 1) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
