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Integrated assembly of Soyuz-FG begins at Baikonur

— Photo: AP

Preparations on: Russia’s Soyuz TMA-13 spaceship that will carry a new crew to the International Space Station in an assembly shop at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Thursday.

Baikonur (Kazakhstan): An operation to assemble a Soyuz-FG booster rocket into an integrated package began at the Baikonur cosmodrome on Thursday.

The rocket is to deliver the Soyuz-TMA-13 manned spaceship to the International Space Station (ISS) shortly. The assembly operation will take approximately six hours to accomplish, a representative of the Energia space rocket corporation told journalists.

A Federal Space Agency official has pointed out that the launch of the Soyuz, which is to bring the 18th main expedition and an American space tourist to the ISS, is scheduled for 1101 hours Moscow time, on October 12.

The crew of the 18th long-duration expedition — Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and NASA astronaut Michael Fink — are to stay aboard the ISS for six months. They are to supersede Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko who have been working in orbit since April.

American programmer and businessman Richard Garriott flies to the

ISS for an eleven-day visiting mission. He will return to the Earth on October 24 together with the ISS-17 crew. — Itar-Tass

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