Russia’s Soyuz-FG carrier rocket rolled out to launch pad

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft was rolled out to its launch pad on Monday, Sept 23, ahead of the planned manned mission to the International Space Station, RIA Novosti reported.

A spokesman for Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said the rollout took place in normal regime.

The rocket is to blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan early on Sept 26 to take new ISS crew members to the orbital station.

The main crew comprises Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky, as well as NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, while the backup crew are Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of Russia and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson.

The names of the three new crew members will be officially announced on Tuesday.

The current ISS crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and astronauts Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency.

Earlier this month, Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut on board landed safely in Kazakhstan.

The undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) took place as scheduled, in an automated regime.

The spacecraft carried Roscosmos cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, who arrived at the ISS in March.