MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Russia expects Belarus’ first female cosmonaut to arrive in Russia for pre-flight training in late summer or early autumn, Sergey Krikalev, executive director for manned space programs of the Roscosmos State Corporation, told TASS on Wednesday on the sidelines of a celebration at the State Kremlin Palace marking Cosmonautics Day.

"We expect [her to arrive] about six months [before the flight], maybe a little earlier. The flight is scheduled for the spring. So [we expect her] in late summer or early fall," Krikalev said in response to a question.

In 2022, the Belarusian side selected six female candidates for a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The primary and backup candidates have already been named, and therefore their training will begin in Russia within the timeframe negotiated with Roscosmos. In late February, Roscosmos announced that the space mission of the first female Belarusian cosmonaut, which had been scheduled for 2023, was put off until the spring of 2024 due to the damage sustained by the Soyuz MS-22 crewed spacecraft in December 2022.