The main and backup crews of the piloted spacecraft “Soyuz MS-25” on the reserve launch day traditionally spent their time at the “Cosmonaut” hotel in the city of Baikonur, according to a TASS correspondent.
The ceremony took place to the song “The grass by the house” by the group “Zemlyane.” The cosmonauts will be driven to the cosmodrome, where they will suit up in spacesuits, and then proceed to the launch pad.
The second launch of “Soyuz-2.1a” is scheduled from launch pad No. 31 (“Vostok”) at 15:36 Moscow time. Approximately nine minutes after liftoff, the rocket will complete its mission and “Soyuz MS-25” will be placed into orbit. The flight to the International Space Station (ISS) will follow a two-day rendezvous scheme – it is expected that the spacecraft will dock with the Russian segment’s “Pirs” universal docking module on March 25 at 18:10 Moscow time.
“Soyuz MS-25” will deliver the crew of the 21st ISS visiting expedition to the station. The main crew includes Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. Novitskiy will go into space for the fourth time, while Dyson will go for the third time. The backup crew includes Belarusian representative Anastasiya Lenkova, cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, and the oldest active American astronaut Donald Pettit.
The launch was initially scheduled for March 21 at 16:21 Moscow time, but was automatically aborted a few seconds before liftoff.