Russia completes carrier rocket installation for space launch from Kazakhstan

Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was installed on Launch Pad 31 (Vostok) of the Baikonur Space Center, a TASS correspondent reported from the facility.

Now the personnel is to roll up the service towers, and final launch preparations will begin.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will blast off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on September 21. The spacecraft’s crew will comprise Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. Their space mission is to last 188 days, until March 28. The spacecraft will also carry about 120 kilograms of payload.