Baikonur welcomes ISS-61/62 expeditions with first UAE astronaut

BAIKONUR. KAZINFORM - Yesterday Baikonur welcomed crews of the Soyuz MS-15 transport manned spacecraft which arrived at the launch site for prelaunch training, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Cosmonauts and astronauts were met at Krayny airport by the leaders of the Baikonur space complex, representatives of Roscosmos, the Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC), students and schoolchildren of the city Baikonur. The first plane has landed with the main crew and the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skrypochka, the American astronaut Jessica Meir and the space flight participant of the UAE cosmonaut Hazza Al Mansouri.

After 15 minutes, the Krainy airport received the second aircraft of the Cosmonaut Training Center with the reserve crew including Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas H. Marshburn and Sultan Al Neyadi.

Within two weeks the crews have to go through a set of trainings, classes and briefings, as well as medical examinations. On September 11, the main and reserve crews will conduct the first training at the Soyuz MS-15 manned spacecraft, the press service of the CTC named after Yury Gagarin informs. The launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for September 25, 2019. Earlier it was reported that the first UAE astronaut will fly into space on the last rocket Soyuz-FG.