main page newsspace newsat baikonur the international crew of iss raised the nations flags.

At Baikonur the international crew of ISS raised the nations flags.. / March 23, 2010 /

Today at Baikonur test training facility by Gagarin main and backup crews of «Soyuz TMA-18» Skvortsov, M. Kornienko, T.Kolduel-Dyson, A. Samokutyaev, A. Borisenko and S. Kelley raised the nations flags — participants of space flight. This astronauts tradition appeared a long time ago and was never broken.

In the flag-raising ceremony was attended by representatives of the Federal Space Agency, the administration of Baikonur, the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, space programs, NASA experts, representatives of the command space forces, and many others.

The mayor of Baikonur Alexander Mezentsev warmly welcomed the astronauts and cosmonauts on baykonurskoy land and assured that the City will make every effort to the final stage of preparation for space flight was for the participants comfortable and convenient.

Head of Federal Space Agency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome Yevgeny Anisimov in a short greeting reported that all space industry and their affiliates at the Baikonur Cosmodrome working on the implementation of the most important and challenging task the next day — providing launch of Soyuz TMA-18, and crews may be calm and confident that this will be done with dignity.

After the flag-raising ceremony, journalists asked a few questions Skvortsova, M. Kornienko and T.Kolduel-Dyson regarding their work on the ISS.

On the Rights of the commander Alexander Skvortsov said that they they will be quite hard work. «We have to take 3» Progress «, 3 shuttle, 1» Union "and the Small Research Module MIM1.

"There will be a lot of scientific experiments — added Mikhail Kornienko, — more than 40. We are ready for this serious and hard work. "

The work on the U.S. segment of the ISS told reporters and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson.

Especially members of the crew noted a children’s drawing, which became the emblem of their space flight. "I am very glad that had such a very good and bright tradition — the emblem of the crew to make drawings of children, — said Alexander Skvortsov. — Children are always out of politics. They draw what they see and feel their child’s spirit. For example, we liked the picture 11-year-old Nastia Berezutski. And I doubly pleased that she was originally from the town of Kurchatov Kursk region, where I served and flew (although I learned about this already then)!

Print version