Yesterday, Friday 28 August, the Soyuz 44S crew went to see their spacecraft in its final configuration: attached to the rocket that will send them into space on 2 September.

They did a final check to make sure everything is ready for flight and installed their ‘gravity-indicator’ that will tell them when they are weightless. The gravity-indicator is nothing more than a toy on a string – when it starts to float the crew will know they are weightless. Aside from being a good luck charm, the toy does genuinely help a Soyuz crew: as they are securely strapped in for launch and flying a spacecraft feeling microgravity is not always obvious. Each crew decides on their own toy/

Space relocation

Meanwhile in space, the Soyuz 42S was moved to a different docking port on the International Space Station to make room for the new arrivals on Friday. Sergei, Andreas and Aidyn now have a reserved parking in space. Read more about the relocation in this blog post by Mission Director Roland Luettgens. Below is a video of a Soyuz relocation from the last time this operation was performed, in 2013, seen from the docking port of the Soyuz being moved: