RUSSIALINK: “Space crew to go to ISS on April 9 to skip some traditional pre-launch procedures because of coronavirus” – Interfax

ZVYOZDNY GORODOK, Moscow region. March 12 (Interfax) – The members of a space crew scheduled to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9 will have to skip a number of traditional pre-launch events as a measure to minimize the coronavirus spread risk, Pavel Vlasov, the chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center, told journalists on Thursday.

To avoid being infected, the main and backup ISS space crews have been banned from leaving Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City), a community outside Moscow where the Cosmonaut Training Center is located and where crews prepare for expeditions.

“Even such traditional things as an excursion toward the Kremlin Wall and to Sergei Korolyov’s home before the launch will be called off for security considerations,” Vlasov said.

The Cosmonaut Training Center has also cancelled all excursions, optimized contacts, and cancelled all nonessential foreign trips by its employees. Employees returning from official trips and vacations abroad have been quarantined for 14 days, as recommended by the Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA). “I hope such measures should produce results,” Vlasov said.

The Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft carrying a crew including Roscosmos Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy is to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the ISS on April 9. The spacecraft is to follow a four-orbit rendezvous profile to dock with the ISS. The expedition is to last 196 days.