Moscow. January 7. INTERFAX - A flight with employees of the rocket and space corporation Energia will arrive at Baikonur on January 12, the head of the city administration Kostantin Busygin said.
"At the meeting of the operational headquarters, special attention was paid to the organization of the work of the cosmodrome, the delivery of specialists from Russia to Baikonur so that the testers could start working with the Progress MS-19 cargo ship and the Soyuz-2-1A launch vehicle next week," Busygin said in an appeal published on the administration's website.
Busygin also noted that a flight with RSC Energia specialists will arrive in the city on January 12.
As reported, the launch of the Progress MS-19 spacecraft is scheduled for February 15 at 07:25 Moscow time. The ship should stay in orbit for 370 days.
As reported in Roscosmos, the ship should deliver funds to the station for the final elimination of air leaks in the transition chamber of the Zvezda module.
In total, three launches of Progresses to the ISS are planned in 2022. According to Roscosmos, each of the trucks will deliver cargo with a total mass of more than 2.5 tons to the ISS, which is necessary to maintain its flight in manned mode and implement the Russian program of scientific and applied research.
In August last year, it was reported that an air leak was detected on the ISS. The station crew managed to locate it in the transition chamber of the Zvezda module. In October 2020, the astronauts were able to detect the first crack about 4 cm in size and seal it with temporary means. After that, the rate of pressure drop on the ISS decreased, but the leak persisted.
The situation in Kazakhstan worsened on January 2, when rallies against a sharp increase in prices for liquefied gas began in Zhanaozen (a city in the Mangystau region, in the west of the country). Then they escalated into mass protests across the country with economic and political demands. On January 4 and 5, protesters clashed with security forces in Almaty. There are dead and injured. On the morning of January 5, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed the government. A state of emergency has been introduced in the country.
On Wednesday, the President of Kazakhstan said that he appealed to the leaders of the CSTO countries for help in overcoming the terrorist threat in the country.
