In October, a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS) turned back after a tank explosion. The investigation quickly resolved, the next crew accelerates his training, the failure of October in mind. The crew of the station must be relieved before January.

On October 11, many observers believed a tragedy saw the fireball cross the sky of Kazakhstan, from which flew the rocket of two Russian astronauts

and American Alexey Ovchinin and Nick Hague. The tanks of their Soyuz en route to the ISS exploded in flight projecting the two men, recovered safely, in a violent return on Earth.

Two thousand five hundred kilometers to the west, at Shcholkolkovo, in the north-east of Moscow, the crew in charge of taking over the mission bore the images of the accident. David Saint-Jacques (Canada), Oleg Kononenko (Russia) and Anne McClain (USA) will be the next to fly to the ISS. They are preparing for the Star City Yuri Gagarin Training Center.

The visitor must still show paw to venture into the maze of this small, once closed city, which only acquired its civil status in 2009. It must pass through wood to the sound of fire and rumblings military planes to find the main entrance.

Inside the Gagarin center, named after the first man to go into space, everything seems frozen in the time of the USSR. A statue of Lenin sits at the end of the main street, a few steps away from an airplane that was one of Russia's most famous cosmonaut. We must not rely on brownish tapestries and kitsch lighting: space agencies around the world are preparing their crews for the cosmos.

The center is made up of gigantic sheds and mysterious buildings. " There are replicas of the ISS for the exercise, from its ancestor the Mir station and the entire series of Soyuz capsules used in history, " says Press Officer Irina Darkina. Soyuz , legendary name of the first satellites, capsules and Russian and Russian rockets that still allow astronauts today to join the stars. In the wake of the failed launch of October, some experts have questioned the technique.

Ready to take off, the 39-year-old American Anne McClain sweeps away these doubts: " The flights in space are always difficult, there is a very high risk of failure. The important thing is that there are plans B or C to all the problems. In October, some saw the end of the Soyuz but we saw the opposite. These capsules are safe, our friends are back home, the security systems worked perfectly. "

Moon lens for Russia

Since the shutdown of US space shuttles, Russian vessels are the only means to bring and repatriate astronauts from the International Space Station. " Originally, the Soyuz were designed to go to the moon, " said Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Russia has not abandoned this goal. Last January, she announced that she would collaborate on the US project to build an orbital station around the Moon satellite. Roscomos would like to go further by installing on the Earth's satellite modules managed by robots, or even humans who would stay there for two weeks, starting in 2035.

On the departure, the three astronauts assure him: the failure of October has no consequence on their mind. However, their takeoff scheduled for December 20 had to be advanced to December 3. The station team must be relayed before 2019. " The preparation lasts several years, the three cosmonauts were already in an intensive sequence of exercises when the accident happened, " said Irina Darkina. "We pay special attention to safety-related training, but this is a normal procedure before departure, " says Pavel Vlasov, head of the Yuri Gagarin center.

Every morning, the astronauts participate in an official ceremony in the presence of the center's leaders. They undertake in writing to carry out the requested exercises. Then the tests begin. Their suitability must be validated before the start of the quarantine period. " We carry out scientific experiments, we practice replacing parts of the ISS and we work on the management of critical situations, classical exercises, " says Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko.

The official photos taken, the crew fits into an exercise capsule. Inside, dozens of buttons and screens. And a few meters away, instructors, engineers and doctors in their control room. Dozens of screens and the portrait of Gagarin, always in evidence.

The young experts mix with sages, former cosmonauts, engineers and soldiers in costumes, their badge of " hero of the USSR " proudly hanging on the chest. The image surprises but reminds the dense and proud history of the conquest of the cosmos by the Soviets.

For the three astronauts, the countdown is started. The rites follow one another: homage to Gagarin, farewell ceremonies and viewing of a Soviet adventure film. This new mission will be an opportunity to take a 3D printer into space. A first.

What open up many horizons for space science research.