S.P. Korolev Energia Press Release:

Today the Interdepartmental Committee assessed the results of qualification test for ISS-15 Expedition and VC-12 visiting crew members. The crew has completed flight training with the mark "excellent".

During two days Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin (S.P. Korolev RSC Energia) and Oleg Kotov (RGNII CTC after Yu.A. Gagarin) together with backup cosmonauts Roman Romanenko (RGNII CTC after Yu.A. Gagarin) and Mikhail Kornienko (S.P. Korolev RSC Energia) demonstrated the skills acquired in the course of training at the Cosmonauts Training Center after Yu.A. Gagarin using the ISS Russian Segment and Soyuz TMA manned space vehicle mockups.

US citizen Charles Simonyi as a space flight participant of the ISS Visiting Crew participated in the test together with the Expedition crew. He is to go on a space journey to the ISS together with a visiting crew for 11 days and return to Earth as a member of ISS-14 Expedition.

Soyuz TMA-10 launch from Baikonur cosmodrome is slated for April 7, 2007.

S.P.Korolev Energia Press Release:

At S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia the next meeting of the General Designer’s Review Board chaired by N.N. Sevastiyanov, the Corporation President, General Designer, took place, with the focus on the Russian Segment of the International Space Station (ISS), forthcoming launch of Soyuz TMA-10 space vehicle and completion of Soyuz TMA-9 flight.

The following was heard according to the agenda:
Report on the status of Soyuz TMA-10 manned transport space vehicle launch processing (speaker: Yu.I. Grigoriev, RSC Energia Deputy General Designer, Director of Orbital Complex Programs);

Report on the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle flight readiness to launch the Soyuz TMA-10 space vehicle flight readiness to launch the Soyuz TMA-10 space vehicle (speakers: D.A. Baranov, GNP RKTs TsSKB – Progress Deputy General Director, Chief Designer; K.K. Popov, RSC Energia Deputy General Designer);

Sea Launch Press Release:

Long Beach, Calif., March 22, 2007 – Sea Launch Company has entered into an agreement with SES to use the Land Launch vehicle, initially slated to launch the AMC-21 communications satellite, for the launch of another, yet to be determined, satellite of the SES group, planned in the mid-2009 time-frame.

"We are pleased to offer this contract flexibility to SES so that we can support their future fleet development requirements," said Rob Peckham, president and general manager of Sea Launch. "We look forward to working with SES on this mission and genuinely appreciate their confidence in us and in our system. Our team is demonstrating continuous progress toward the introduction of the new Land Launch service."

Land Launch will use a Zenit-3SLB vehicle to launch this medium weight satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. Both the satellite and the launch vehicle will be integrated and launched from the Zenit processing and launch facilities at Baikonur.