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Russia’s carrier rocket with Soyuz MS-15 manned spacecraft installed at Baikonur spaceport

It will blast off on September 25

The International Space Station (ISS) NASA

The International Space Station (ISS)

BAIKONUR SPACEPORT/Kazakhstan/, September 23. /TASS/. A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket that will launch Soyuz MS-15 manned spacecraft into orbit on September 25 with three crew members onboard has been installed at the launch pad of the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Monday.

"In accordance with the decision of the state commission, a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-15 has been transported from the assembly and testing facility and installed at the launch pad," the state corporation said.

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Russian military satellite launched from Baikonur reaches orbit

The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-15 manned spacecraft is set to blast off at 16:57 Moscow time on September 25 from Baikonur’s famous launch site 1, known as Gagarin’s Start. It will be the 70th and last launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket. In the future, all manned Soyuz spacecraft will be taken into orbit by Soyuz-2.1a carrier rockets.

The Soyuz MS-15 crew will include Russian cosmonaut and mission commander Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and the UAE’s first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri. The docking is scheduled for 22:45 Moscow time. Skripochka and Meir will spend 187 days aboard the ISS. Hazza Al Mansouri will return to Earth on October 3, 2019, together with Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague.

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