SOYUZ-TM 30 Ready for launch: April 4, 2000 - 05:01 UTC

Two cosmonauts flew from Moscow to Russia's cosmodrome at Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to prepare for a planned April 4 mission to the aging Mir space station.
The cosmonauts are expected to spend at least 45 days in orbit and will have to spruce up the accident-prone Mir craft, which has been cirling the Earth empty and partially shut down since last August.

Mission Control said commander Sergei Zalyotin and engineer Alexander Kaleri were due to blast off in a Soyuz spacecraft and had been accompanied to Baikonur by a two-man back-up crew.

Infoes and images about new MIR Crew