Soyuz TMA 16 to take off on September 30 – Federal Space Agency
MOSCOW. September 16. KAZINFORM The Soyuz TMA 16 manned spaceship will take off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on September 30, the Federal Space Agency Board said on Tuesday; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.
"The launch vehicle, the manned spaceship, the land infrastructure and the search-and-rescue service are ready for the launch," Agency head Anatoly Perminov said.
"You will fly to Baikonur on September 17," he said, addressing the main crew and their backups. "The weather forecast is good. High-ranking guests will watch the launch."
These include new NASA chief Charles Bolden, Perminov said. Bolden was on a space mission together with Sergei Krikalyov, the incumbent head of the Cosmonaut Training Center. In the words of Perminov, they will discuss further cooperation between Russia and NASA with Bolden.
The ISS crews will get busier from one mission to another, Perminov said. The United States has assigned $3.5 billion for the development of a vehicle, which will deliver commercial payloads to the ISS; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.
See www.itar-tass.com for full version.