Russian officials said the team assigned to aid the crew had been under medical observation for a month, including tests for coronavirus. “Please keep your distance,” one ground crew member could be heard telling another, in footage released by Russia’s space agency. Following the medical checkup, the crew boarded helicopters to Baikonur, the Russian launch site in the Kazakh steppe. The director of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said on Wednesday that there were currently 30 cases of coronavirus among employees. Astronauts Chris Cassidy, from the US, and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will spend six months on the ISS.

Source: The Guardian April 17, 2020 10:52 UTC