MOSCOW, August 24 The main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, which will depart for the International Space Station (ISS) in September, have passed the exams, said Thursday Roskosmos.
«This week, the members of the main and backup crews of the ISS-70/71 expedition spent their working days on the simulators of the Russian segment of the station and the Soyuz manned spacecraft. Based on the results of four days, both crews completed all training tasks in full, recognized and fended off emergency situations introduced in accordance with the extended tickets,» the message says.
On Monday, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, members of the main crew of the spacecraft, completed an exam training on knowledge of the Russian segment of the station , coped with all emergency situations and received an «excellent» rating.
«On August 22, the crew also successfully demonstrated their skills in working with the Soyuz spacecraft at all stages of the space flight. At this time, the backup crew, which included Alexei Ovchinin and Tracey Dyson, fended off emergency situations on the Russian segment of the ISS. The actions of the main crew and their backups were highly appreciated by the commission,» the state corporation added.
On Wednesday, Kononenko and Ovchinin had an examination training on the Soyuz spacecraft simulator. Ovchinin, the commander of the backup crew, acted as a backup for flight engineer Nikolai Chub. The crew eliminated emergency situations at all stages of the flight, the cosmonauts manually carried out the docking due to the failure of the Kurs system, and also switched to an emergency descent due to depressurization of the descent vehicle. This time their actions were also rated «excellent» by the commission.
«Today, August 24, an exam training session on the systems of the Soyuz manned spacecraft took place with the backup crew. Alexey Ovchinin, Tracey Dyson and Nikolai Chub, a member of the Soyuz MS-24 prime crew, took part in it as a flight engineer,» Roscosmos noted. «.
Earlier, Roskosmos reported that the main medical board recommended removing cosmonaut Oleg Platonov from the backup crew. Since then, Ovchinin has been duplicating both Kononenko and Chub.
The launch of the spacecraft on the Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for September 15, 2023. It is expected that Kononenko and Chub will spend 375 days at the station. O'Hara will return to Earth in March 2024.