BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan) September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The state commission at Baikonur Cosmodrome has approved the crew of the latest expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), a spokesperson for Roscosmos told RIA News Wednesday.
“The launch is slated for September 26, 00:25 Moscow time [20:25 GMT, September 25],” he said. “For the first time in a seventeen-year period of a male hegemony a Russian female cosmonaut, Elena Serova, will fly into orbit. She will be accompanied in the space capsule “Soyuz” by cosmonaut Aleksander Samokutyaev as well as NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore.”
Earlier, as part of ground training, the new expedition crew and the ISS worked out the docking on a simulator. The cosmonauts and the astronaut also tried on the space suits to test their impermeability as well as assessed the performance of the ship’s radio system and studied the placement of the consignments.
