Soyuz TMA-16M
Soyuz TMA-16M approaches the ISS, 28 March 2015.
OperatorRoskosmos
COSPAR ID2015-016A
SATCAT no.40542
Mission duration168d 5h 9m
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TMA 11F732A47 No.716
ManufacturerRKK Energia
Crew
Crew size3
MembersGennady Padalka
LaunchingMikhail Korniyenko
Scott Kelly
LandingAndreas Mogensen
Aydyn Aimbetov
CallsignAltair[1]
Start of mission
Launch date27 March 2015
19:42:57 UTC[2]
RocketSoyuz-FG
Launch siteBaikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date12 September 2015
00:51 UTC
Landing siteKazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking portPoisk zenith
Docking date28 March 2015
01:33 UTC
Undocking date28 August 2015
03:12 UTC
Time docked153d 1h 39m
Docking with ISS
(Relocation)
Docking portZvezda aft
Docking date28 August 2015
03:30 UTC[3]
Undocking date11 September 2015
21:29 UTC
Time docked14d 17h 59m

(l-r) Kelly, Padalka and Kornienko
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)
 

Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.[4] It transported three members of the Expedition 43 crew to the Station. TMA-16M was the 125th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first having launched in 1967.

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko performed the first one-year stay at the Space Station,[4] returning in Soyuz TMA-18M.

Crew

Position[5] Launching Crew Member Landing Crew Member
Commander Russia Gennady Padalka, RSA
Expedition 43
Fifth and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA
Expedition 43
Second and last spaceflight
Denmark Andreas Mogensen, ESA
Iriss[6]
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 United States Scott Kelly, NASA
Expedition 43
Fourth and last spaceflight
Kazakhstan Aidyn Aimbetov[7], KazCosmos
N/A
First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[8] Crew Member
Commander Russia Aleksey Ovchinin, RSA
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Sergey Volkov, RSA
Flight Engineer 2 United States Jeffrey Williams, NASA

Mission highlights

Launch, rendezvous and docking

Soyuz TMA-16M was launched successfully aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 19:42 UTC on Friday, 27 March 2015. The spacecraft reached low Earth orbit approximately nine minutes after lift-off. After executing rendezvous maneuvers, the Soyuz docked with the zenith port of the International Space Station's Poisk module approximately six hours after launch, at 01:33 UTC on 28 March. The docking occurred over Colombia.[9][10]

Soyuz TMA-16M remained docked to the ISS—serving as an emergency escape vehicle–until 12 September 2015, when it departed and returned Padalka, Andreas Mogensen and Aydyn Aimbetov to Earth.[7] This vehicle was previously scheduled to carry Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but Brightman's flight was announced to be cancelled in May 2015.[11]

Relocation maneuver

Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was relocated from Poisk module to the orbiting laboratory's Zvezda module service module on 28 August 2015.[3] This cleared the Poisk module for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18M.

Undocking and return to Earth

Soyuz TMA-16M undocked from the ISS at 21:29 UTC on 11 September 2015, containing Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency. Following a deorbit burn, the Soyuz spacecraft's descent module reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 00:51 UTC on 12 September 2015, just over three hours after departing the ISS.[12]

References

  1. Soyuz TMA-16M mission updates Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Spaceflight101, 28 March 2015
  2. Clark, Stephen. "Live coverage: Crew ready to begin record-setting space mission". SpaceflightNow. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Soyuz Relocation". NASA. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission NASA, 26 November 2012.
  5. Планируемые полёты (in Russian). astronaut.ru. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  6. Agencia Espacial Europea. "Andreas Mogensen's mission name links cosmos and Earth". Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  7. 1 2 TASS (22 June 2015). "Kazakhstani cosmonaut to fly to ISS in September in place of British singer Brightman". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  8. astronaut.ru (2013). "Орбитальные полёты".
  9. "Soyuz TMA-16M kicks off historic one year expedition". NASASpaceflight.com. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  10. "One Year Crew Arrives at Station". NASA. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. "Brightman steps down from station flight". Spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  12. "Soyuz Return to Earth". NASA. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.