The search and rescue group of the Central Military District has been relocated to Kazakhstan to ensure the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-18 manned[...]

Military personnel of the search and rescue and parachute service of the Central Military District (CMD), relocated to Kazakhstan to the places of operational duty to ensure the safety of the launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft.

To ensure the launch of the launch vehicle, more than 150 rescue specialists and an aviation group were deployed to the duty operational areas in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation: Mi-8 helicopters, An-26 and An-12 aircraft; more than 20 units of ground-based vehicles, including four upgraded search and evacuation vehicles PEM-1 and PEM-2 Siniaia ptitsa. During the flight of the 65th expedition to the International Space Station, military rescuers will be on operational duty at the Russian airfields in the settlements of Uprun, Gorno-Altaysk, Kyzyl, Yekaterinburg and on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the airfields in Karaganda, Baikonur, Zhezkazgan and Arkalyk.

Launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz ms-18 manned spacecraft, which received the name Yu.A.Gagarin in connection with the upcoming Cosmonautics Day is scheduled for April 9, 2021. The main crew of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft included Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai, while the backup crew included Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Ann McClain.

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