BAIKONUR. March 18 (Interfax) - The main and backup crews of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft held their first training session at the assembly and testing module of Site 254 at Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday.
""After their arrival at the assembly module and talks with the technical personnel, the main crew - Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and Christopher Cassidy- took their places aboard the Soyuz-TMA-08M spacecraft and checked the location of the cargo and the radio communication systems," a source s at the cosmodrome told Interfax.
The backup crew, Oleg Kotov, Sergei Ryazansky and Michael Scott Hopkins, meanwhile, concentrated on research equipment and examined the Progress freighter.
Then the main crew tried on and checked the spacesuits for air tightness, while the backup crew entered the spacecraft. In the afternoon the main crew examined the location of the cargo and learned to handle the Iridium telephones and laser range-measurement systems, while the backup crew tried on the spacesuits and worked inside the spacecraft.
After the training, technical personnel started preparing the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft for transportation to a filling station at Site 31, where it will be filled with fuel and compressed gas on Monday.
A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is to lift off from Baikonur at 00:43 a.m., Moscow time, on March 29. The Soyuz will ferry a Russian-American crew of Long Duration Expedition 35/36 to the International Space Station.