Today, October 11, specialists from RSC Energia working at the Baikonur launch site have conducted a designer’s inspection of the new-series crew transportation spacecraft Soyuz MS-02 and performed a sequence of operations to roll on the payload fairing of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle.

The spacecraft preparations for the launch under the International Space Station (ISS) program are being performed at the spacecraft processing facility at the Baikonur launch site.

Planned for the next week under the schedule of processing activities is transportation of the orbital module containing Soyuz MS-02 from the spacecraft processing facility to the launch vehicle integration and checkout facility to be integrated with Soyuz-FG launch vehicle.

The launch of the crew transportation spacecraft Soyuz MS-02 is scheduled for October 19 from Pad Area 31 of the Baikonur launch site. The main crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough. The backup crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonautsAlexander Misurkin and Nikolai Tikhonov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

The new-series spacecraft Soyuz MS was developed as a result of a radical upgrade of Soyuz TMA spacecraft. It is designed to deliver crews of up to three and their accompanying cargoes to the International Space Station, as well as to return them to Earth. When attached to the ISS, it also serves as a crew rescue vehicle and is kept permanently ready for emergency crew return to Earth.