The crew of Soyuz TMA-18M held a pre-flight press conference September 1, 2015

Today, September 1, cosmonauts and astronauts from the main and backup crews of the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M answered questions from journalists in the course of a pre-flight press conference held in the town of Baikonur.

Appearing at the press conference as members of the main crew of Soyuz TMA-18M were a Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Volkov (commander), an ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen (flight engineer) and a Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov (flight engineer 2). Their backups were Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka (commander) and Sergei Prokopiev (flight engineer 2), as well as an ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet (flight engineer).

The commander of the main crew of Soyuz TMA-18M S. Volkov expressed his confidence that the crew is prepared for the mission and will be able to cope with their duties onboard the spacecraft.. He also told journalists about some of the scientific experiments that are scheduled to be conducted on International Space Station (ISS) during Expeditions ISS-45/46.

Among these studies, S. Volkov singled out as the most interesting for him personally such experiments as Plasma Crystal (a study of plasma-dust crystals and liquids in microgravity onboard the ISS) and Coulombic Crystal (a study of a charged particles system dynamics in magnetic field in microgravity), and also said that he would be pleased to work on various tasks related to monitoring Earth surface from space.

S. Volkov added that, given the fact that returning with him from orbit onboard Soyuz TMA-18M in the first half of 2016 will be participants in the one-year mission Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and US astronaut Scott Kelly, some additional training sessions in spacecraft control might be conducted prior to undocking and landing.

"Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly at present only work on experiments and station housekeeping. That is why I expect that we are going to have some additional training sessions to drill in undocking and return to Earth in Soyuz TMA-18M. Instead of one, there will be two or three of them" , - said the cosmonaut.

Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov said that he was going to take with him in space some foodstuffs representing the Kazakh national cuisine. "These are freeze-dried products developed by the Kazakh Academy of Nutrition. They include vitamin supplements to improve working capacity, strengthen immunity and reduce fatigue", - said the cosmonaut.

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen said that during pre-flight training he had gotten well acquainted with Soyuz spacecraft and was looking forward to his first space mission.

"We made sure that our spacecraft is ready for the flight. Yesterday the rocket was rolled out and the launch time is already close. I look forward to this fine opportunity to get onboard the ISS", - said A. Mogensen.

Members of the main crew of Soyuz TMA-18M also told journalists about the work with their participation planned onboard the ISS, about souvenirs that they were going to take with them to orbit, and about what they were going to do in their free time.

The launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M under the ISS program is scheduled for Wednesday, September 2, at 7:37:43 Moscow Time from Area No.1 ("Gagarin's launch pad") of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft will deliver to the ISS one crew member of ISS-45/46 and two members of the crew of Visiting Mission 18.

The plans for Expeditions ISS-45 and ISS-46 include operations with Russian manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M, Soyuz TMA-16M, Soyuz TMA-17M, cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-M and Progress MS, US cargo spacecraft Dragon, Cygnus and a Japanese cargo spacecraft HTV-5. One spacewalk is scheduled within the framework of the ISS Russian Segment program. The plans include activities to maintain the station in good working order, to upgrade it, and to run a program of scientific, engineering and applied studies and experiments. During the period of ISS-45/46/Visisting Mission 18, there are plans to conduct 47 scientific experiments. The crew members, as is customary, will be taking photos and shooting video onboard.

The scheduled duration of the cosmonaut S.Volkov's mission is 188 days. Members of the visiting mission crew, astronaut A.Mogensen and cosmonaut A.Aimbetov will stay in orbit for 10 days.

Joint Stock Company RSC Energia is the leader in the rocket and space industry, and the prime contractor for manned space systems. It conducts work on the development of unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles), and high-technology systems for various non-space applications. Since August 2014 the Corporation is headed by V.L. Solntsev.

RSC Energia Press Center

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