Article Posted on : - Sep 27, 2009

A file photo of International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

MOSCOW (PTI): ISS Crew 21 and the space tourists tried on the space suits and the seats in the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft, which will carry them on September 30 to the orbit.

The crew tried the suits and seats for the second and final time yesterday in the aircraft, the Cosmonaut Training Centre's press secretary Irina Rogova said.

"ISS Crew 21 this Friday has a final 'fitting' of the Soyuz and the space suits,"Irina Rogova was quoted by itar Tass as saying.

"Besides, the cosmonauts will examine the MIM-2 new module they will dock to the Russian segment of the station in November." she added.

The first "fitting" of the space suits and the seats and training aboard the Soyuz took place at the cosmodrome on September 18.

Russian Maxim Surayev and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams together with space tourist Guy Laliberte checked the airtightness of the space suits and got into the capsule of the piloted spacecraft, in which they tested the seats and radio and television systems and checked the placement of equipment and cargoes in the craft.

After the first "fitting", the crewmembers said what needed correcting. They will check now once more whether everything is right.

While the crew on the earth tests the vehicle, some of the crewmembers of ISS Expedition 20 prepare to return to the earth.