Soyuz TMA-17 crews take final tests before flight to ISS
08:02, 26 November 2009
STAR CITY. November 26. KAZINFORM The main and backup crews for the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will begin on Thursday their final tests at a space training center near Moscow; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket bearing the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on December 21.
"A two-day final exams session must confirm the readiness of cosmonauts and astronauts for the space flight planned for the second half of December 2009," a Russian official at the training center at Star City told reporters on Wednesday.
The main TMA-17 crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Noguchi will be the second Japanese astronaut to fly on a Soyuz, after Toyohiro Akiyama; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.
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