The crew of a new expedition ISS started exams in Star city

The Prime and backup crews 43/44 expedition to the International space station have begun to pass preflight examinations at the cosmonaut training Center in Star city near Moscow, the correspondent of RIA Novosti.New ISS crew will stay in orbit for about 50 experiments

Basically the crew - astronauts Roscosmos Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. They March 27, have to go to the space station on transport manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-16M. According to the plan, Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly on Board the ISS will have to work during the year. Gennady Padalka will have to return to Earth earlier in the semi-annual flight he will record the total time spent in space (total duration of about 900 days) ahead of other Russian astronaut, former chief of the training Center cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.

As part of the backup crew, cosmonauts Alexei Ovenin and Sergei Volkov, and astronaut Jeffrey Williams.

Before starting exams, the international Commission checked the tickets and lists. The first to surrender began, members of the backup crew, on Wednesday they will practice skills on the simulator transport manned spacecraft “Soyuz TMA-M”.

“The crew should receive the highest possible rating. In each exercise - as in real flight. The ticket we don’t know, know about the list of issues. There are five envelopes. At the end of the training we learn what it is, everything is learned in the process,” said Volkov.

“The difference between us and the students that for the last night of all you can’t teach,” said he.

The main crew on Wednesday will work on the simulator of the Russian segment of the ISS. When the crew pulled the ticket, head of the Commission said: “What do you prefer - fire or depressurization?”. To work he ordered according to the documentation, and “smiles”.

The crew declined to comment: “All on Friday, then that’s a bad sign,” said cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

The exam will last at least five or six hours. The next day the Prime and backup crews will swap places and will continue to exams. Then the astronauts will have three days of rest.

“Both crews of experienced, very well in the exams,” he told journalists the head of the training Center cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.