RTU MIREA Students’ Baikonur Expedition: ISS-Flown Flag Handover and Soyuz Launch Prep

The “Team Arctic” Student Expedition Corps members at Baikonur received a flag flown to the International Space Station, and their leader earned a medal “For Loyalty to the Commonwealth.” The highlight of the students’ visit is watching the Soyuz MS-28 launch on November 27.

Baikonur’s Deputy Head of the City Administration, Nikolai Petrovich Adasev, presented the ISS-flown flag to the delegation during a special ceremony. It was as part of the same ceremony that the leader of the student group Pavel Shishchenko was awarded the medal "For Loyalty to the Commonwealth." He said: "Receiving this award and the flag that has been in space is recognition of the significance of our entire corps' work."

The visit's culmination will be observing the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-28 manned transport spacecraft, scheduled for November 27. Currently, the students are familiarizing themselves with cosmodrome facilities, including launch and measurement complexes.

RTU MIREA student Elizaveta Chagina shared: "When you take this flag in your hands, it feels like you're holding a piece of space itself. It orbited Earth for several months, and now it's here with us. The thought that we'll soon see the rocket heading to the stars ourselves is breathtaking. It's an indescribable feeling of excitement, pride, and eager anticipation of a miracle all at once."

RTU MIREA Pro-Rector Igor Tarasov underscored the event's importance for education: "The flag handover ceremony and the upcoming rocket launch are the kind of unique opportunities we strive to provide our students. Such events show how academic activities extend beyond classrooms, inspiring students to new achievements and strengthening their connection to our country's great history."

The "Team Arctic" Student Expedition Corps is an inter-university project uniting 116 colleges and universities from 53 Russian regions. Its core organization is RTU MIREA. In 2025, project participants organized over 100 expeditions of various kinds.