At the site No. 17 of the Baikonur cosmodrome, a solemn ceremony of raising the flags of countries participating in the launch of the transport piloted ship “Union MS-20” took place. It traditionally took part primary and duplicating crews of the 20th expedition to visits to the International Space Station.
Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexander Misurnkin and Space Flight Participant Yozo Hirano raised the flag of the Russian Federation, Yusaka Maesava and Schun Ogiso – Flag of Japan, and Alexander Skvortsov – Flag of Kazakhstan.
This event has been carried out since the 1970s, revered by all generations of astronauts and symbolizes the official start of the final stage of the training of astronauts to the start. Today, representatives of subsidiaries of the state corporation “Roscosmos”, the Center for the Training Center and Space Adventures, providing pre-assemblement of crews.
According to the tradition of a duplicating crew, Alexander Skvortsov and Schun Ogiso went to a review bus tour of Baikonuru, the history of which is inextricably linked with the names of the great people involved in the development of space.
both crews also continue to prepare for space flight factors, classes on the on-board documentation of the transport piloted ship “Union MS-20” are held, instructing the safety instrument when working on the Russian segment of the International Space Station and workout on manual mooring.