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Medics clear Russian cosmonauts for flight to world’s sole orbiter

NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold are set to fly to the space station along with the Russian cosmonauts as members of the basic crew

Oleg Artemyev Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Oleg Artemyev

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Alexei Ovchinin have been cleared by medics for their flight as members of a new expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for March 15, the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported on Wednesday.

"The main medical commission held a session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, which analyzed the data of medical examinations of cosmonauts from the basic and back-up crews of the 55/56th long-term expedition to the ISS over the period of their pre-flight training," Roscosmos said.

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"Following the results of the commission’s session, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Alexei Ovchinin have been cleared for a space flight by their health condition," the press office said.

Artemyev is a member of the new expedition’s main crew while Ovchinin is included in the back-up team.

NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold are set to fly to the space station along with the Russian cosmonauts as members of the basic crew. Their back-up replacement is Tyler Hague.

A Soyuz MS-08 manned spacecraft with a new expedition crew is scheduled to blast off to the ISS on March 15 from the Baikonur spaceport.

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