Russians prep new Soyuz for launch to space station

A veteran cosmonaut, a former Japanese 767 airline pilot and a NASA astronaut with a Ph.D. in cancer biology are making final preparations for launch July 6 on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. It will be the first flight in an upgraded Soyuz ferry craft with improved, more redundant navigation, communications and computer equipment. Soyuz MS-01 commander Anatoly Ivanishin, flight engineer Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins are scheduled for blastoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:36:41 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4, 7:36 a.m. Thursday local time). More

(Source: CBSD News - Jul 6)