MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft have arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome for pre-launch preparations ahead of the flight to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia's Roscosmos space corporation said on Wednesday.
"Representatives of the technical management and the state commission met them at the Krainy airfield. The commanders of the crews reported to the management about the readiness to perform the flight and receive the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft," Roscosmos said.
After the report, the crews went to the test and training facility of the Cosmonaut Training Center, where they are to underdo pre-flight training and medical examinations, it said.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for March 21, 2024. The main crew includes Roscosmos Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, Belarus's Marina Vasilevskaya, and NASA Astronaut Tracy Dyson. The backup crew comprises Roscosmos Cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, Belarus's Anastasia Lenkova, and NASA Astronaut Donald Pettit.
Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days at the ISS and return to Earth along with NASA Astronaut Loral O'Hara on board the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft in March. Dyson's mission should continue until September, and she will return to Earth on board Soyuz MS-25 along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.
Vasilevskaya is a flight attendant of the Belarusian national airline Belavia, and Lenkova is a pediatric surgeon at the Belarusian National Scientific and Practical Center.