18 November Soyuz MS-03 to be launched to ISC

BAIKONUR. KAZINFORM - An expedition crew who will fly to the International Space Center have arrived in Baikonur space port, Kazinform reports. In the airport the astronauts were welcomed by the administration of the space complex, schoolchildren, students and journalists.

The prime and backup crews of the spacecraft Soyuz MS-03 have arrived by two airplanes of the Space Training Center with 15 minute interval.

  

The prime crew consists of the captain, space engineer of ISC-50/51 Oleg Novitskiy (Roskosmos), space engineer of spacecraft and ISC-50/51 Thomas Pesquet (ESA) and space engineer of spacecraft and ISC-50, captain of ISC-51 Peggy Witson (NASA).

The backup crew consists of Roskosmos astronaut Fyedor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Jack Fisher and astronaut of the European Space Agency Paolo Nespoli.

 

Both crews are now at the training and test complex for pre-launch preparation.

According to the press-service of Roskosmos, the two-week pre-launch program includes medical examination, physical trainings, inspection of space suits and seat liners, flight data and ballistics training and other experiments and practical exercise.

 

The launch of the piloted spacecraft of the new modification Soyuz MS-02 is scheduled on November 18, 2016, at 02:20 am.