MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The state commission has made a decision to roll out and install the Soyuz-2.1a rocket at a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Roscosmos said on Friday.

"The state commission has authorized the rollout and installation of the rocket at launch pad 31 on May 21," the state corporation said in a statement.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Progress MS-23 cargo spacecraft is scheduled for 3:56 p.m. Moscow time on May 24. The rocket’s body is adorned with emblems dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the city of Perm and the 60th anniversary of the flight of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

The spacecraft is to deliver a 2,491-kilogram payload to the ISS, complete with 499 kilograms of fuel, 630 liters of drinking water, 40 kilograms of compressed nitrogen in cylinders, as well as about 1,322 kilograms of various equipment and materials in the cargo compartment, such as medical and hygienic items and clothes.

"The cargo vehicle will deliver a universal workstation, the URM-D, which will be installed on the outer surface of the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the ISS during a spacewalk," Roscosmos said.

The Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences has said the cargo spacecraft will bring food for Russian cosmonauts at the station. The crew’s menu will be replenished with vegetable and other soups, as well as freeze-dried side dishes: buckwheat and rice meal, pasta with mushrooms, omelets, vegetable stew, salads and cottage cheese. Traditionally, the crew’s diet will include canned food, drinks, fruit concentrates, candy and bread, including honey cakes, which cosmonauts have repeatedly used as the main ingredient for making improvised deserts on board the station.

Earlier, the psychological support service told TASS that Progress MS-23 will also deliver a gift to the station for the agency's special correspondent, Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin, who will celebrate his 40th birthday on July 10. The service did not specify what gift the cosmonaut will get so as not to spoil the surprise.