Members of the main and backup crews of the new-series Crew Transportation Spacecraft Soyuz MS-03 arrived at the Baikonur launch site to go through the final stages of prelaunch preparations.

The main crew of ISS-50/51 consists of a Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. Their backups are a Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor YURCHIKHIN, a NASA astronaut Jack FISCHER, and an ESA astronaut Paolo NESPOLI.

At Baikonur the cosmonauts will perform fit checks of Sokol-KV spacesuits, practice on-the-spot responses inside their spacecraft, familiarize themselves with onboard documentation and run a number of tests on onboard systems. There are also plans to include into the final training sessions at the launch site a practice drill in the manual docking of the spacecraft to the ISS, a check of equipment kits, practicing the upcoming ballistic operations and other preparatory procedures.

The launch of the CTS Soyuz MS-03 with the crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for November 17, 2016 from the Baikonur launch site.