Carrier Rocket to Launch New Crew to Int'l Space Station Fully Assembled

Specialists of the JSC SRC "Progress" have finished the full assembly of the carrier rocket Soyuz-FG with a newly modified piloted spacecraft Soyuz-MS at the Baikonur cosmodrome, according to the statement of Roscosmos.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The full assembling of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket, whose launch was postponed from June 24 to July 7, was performed at the Baikonur cosmodrome on Sunday, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

On June 6, Roscosmos said that the launch of a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the first modernized Soyuz-MS piloted spacecraft carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed until July 7 for safety precautions.

"Today, on July 3,2016, specialists of the JSC SRC "Progress" have finished the full assembly of the carrier rocket Soyuz-FG with a newly modified piloted spacecraft Soyuz-MS at the Baikonur cosmodrome," Roscosmos said in a post on Facebook.

It is noted that the carrier rocket will be installed in a vertical position at the cosmodrome on July 4. The launch of the carrier rocket Soyuz-FG is scheduled for July 7 at 04:36 Moscow time (01:36 GMT).

The crew of the piloted spacecraft Soyuz-MS includes its captain, Roscosmos astronaut Anatoly Ivanishin, as well as Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Kathleen Rubins.