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ISS-63 crews taking preflight training exams

ISS-63 exams pick up the pace at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC). Complex examination training will take place in GCTC on March 11-12, 2020.

Last week the prime and backup crews of Soyuz MS-16 crewed spacecraft passed several important exams. On February 27, the Russian ISS-63 prime crew members Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner took manual berthing and redocking tests on the Don-Soyuz simulator. The training included non-routine situations with the crew required to transfer from automatic control mode to manual mode.

At the same time, the ISS-63 backup crew member Andrey Babkin took the manual control descent on a TS-7 simulator based on the TsF-7 centrifuge. On February 28, the backup crewmembers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Babkin passed the manual approach examination training using the Don-Soyuz simulator, while the prime crew took the manual telecontrol of berthing and docking of a Progress MS supply vehicle from the ISS board.

US astronauts joined the training this week with the ISS-63 crews take the ‘Typical flight day’ training to check their knowledge of the Russian International Space Station segment.

ISS-63 prime crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, the backup crew are Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Babkin and NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen.