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Carrier rocket with Soyuz MS manned spacecraft placed on launch pad at Baikonur

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan), November 14. /TASS/. A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft has been placed on a launch pad at the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Monday.

"In accordance with a decision by the state commission, the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket has been taken together with the Soyuz MS manned transport spacecraft from the assembly and testing facility to the launch pad," the corporation’s spokesman said.

The spacecraft is planned to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) at 23:20 Moscow time (20:20 GMT) on November 17 and is expected to dock with the world sole orbiter’s Rassvet Russian module at 01:02 Moscow time on November 20.

The spacecraft will deliver Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, US astronaut Peggy Whitson and also astronaut of the European Space Agency Thomas Pesquet (France) to the ISS.