News

Launch vehicle with Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is on the launch pad

August 31, 2015

Today, August 31, the launch vehicle Soyuz-FG integrated with the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M was rolled out of the processing facility and was erected on the launch pad of Area 1 ("Gagarin's launch pad") of the Baikonur cosmodrome.

The decision to roll out and erect the launch vehicle with the spacecraft was made at a meeting of the technical management and the government commission which was held on Sunday in the course of preparations for the launch.

The launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M under the program of the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Wednesday, September 2, at 7:37:43 Moscow Time.

Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft will deliver to the ISS one crew member of ISS-45/46 and two members of the crew of Visiting Mission 18. The member of the ISS-45/46 Expedition crew is a Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, and the members of the visiting crew are a Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen and a Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov.

The manned transportation spacecraft of the new series Soyuz TMA-M developed and built by RSC Energia is an upgraded version of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft. It is equipped with new devices for the motion control and navigation system and an improved onboard measurement system. All the devices are built around state-of-the-art electronic components and run the latest software. The upgrade made it possible to reduce the mass of the onboard equipment and thus enhance the capability to deliver payload to orbit.

The spacecraft is designed to deliver the crews of up to three and their accompanying cargoes to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as to return them to Earth. When attached to the ISS, Soyuz TMA-M serves as a crew rescue vehicle and is kept permanently ready for emergency crew return to Earth. This might be required in case of an emergency onboard the station, illness or injury of a crewmember.

Joint Stock Company RSC Energia is the leader in the rocket and space industry, and the prime contractor for manned space systems. It conducts work on the development of unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles), and high-technology systems for various non-space applications. Since August 2014 the Corporation is headed by V.L. Solntsev.