The manned Soyuz MS-18 cargo spaceship with the name of first man in space Yu.A. Gagarin" written on its screen vacuum thermal insulation, docked the Rassvet module of the International Space Station (ISS), Russian Space Corporation Roscosmos wrote on Twitter.
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket blasted into space at 10:43 a.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket carried the official emblem of the 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight.
In March, Roscosmos reported that NPO Energomash completed a three-month cycle of eight firing runs of the first advanced liquid-propellant rocket power unit, the RD-171MV, known as the Tsar Engine.
The monument to first man in space Yuri Gagarin installed on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow, was cleaned and washed. The works were conducted by specialists from the State Budgetary Institution Automobile Roads of the South-West Administrative District, RIA Novosti reports.
The monument was washed as part of spring improvements, deputy director of the company, Alexei Sirotkin said. The works were also timed to coincide with the Cosmonautics Day, or Space exploration Day, which is celebrated annually on April 12.
The monument was first cleaned with brushes, a special detergent was applied on it, and then the monument was doused with water. Three employees, one elevated work platform with a height of 52 meters and a flasher truck took part in the work.
The monument to Yuri Gagarin was erected in Moscow for the 1980 Olympics. It was installed just two weeks before the start of the Games.