Soyuz TMA-2 was a

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

(Russian Союз ТМА-2, ''Union TMA-2'') mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS) launched by a

Soyuz FG The Soyuz-FG launch vehicle was an improved version of the Soyuz-U from the R-7 family of rockets, designed and constructed by TsSKB-Progress in Samara, Russia. Guidance, navigation, and control system was developed and manufactured by "Polisv ...

launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 28, 2003 and undocked on October 10, 2003. Soyuz TMA-2 was the second flight for the ''TMA'' modification of the

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS. The commander was Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (Russia), and the flight engineer was

Edward Tsang Lu Edward Tsang "Ed" Lu (; born July 1, 1963) is an American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He flew on two Space Shuttle flights, and made an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. In 2007, Lu retired from NASA to become the pr ...

(USA). After docking with the ISS they exchanged with the resident crew on ISS and became the seventh station crew, called "ISS Expedition Seven".

Alexander Kaleri Aleksandr "Sasha" Yuriyevich Kaleri (russian: Александр Юрьевич Калери; born in Jūrmala, Latvia on 13 May 1956) is a Russian cosmonaut and veteran of extended stays on the Mir Space Station and the International Space Statio ...

and

Michael Foale Colin Michael Foale (; born 6 January 1957) is a British-American astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the Internat ...

were assigned as the backup crew.

Crew

Original Crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: 7136 kg *Perigee: 200 km *Apogee: 250 km *Inclination: 51.7° *Period: 88.7 min

Docking with ISS

*Docked to ISS: April 28, 2003, 05:56 UTC (to nadir port of Zarya) *Undocked from ISS: October 27, 2003, 23:17 UTC (from nadir port of Zarya)

Mission highlights

Originally the Soyuz missions to the ISS were all planned to be only taxi mission to deliver a new Soyuz spacecraft as the station's lifeboat every six month with a visiting crew, but not for crew exchange. Until the

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texa ...

the same was planned for Soyuz TMA-2, a visiting crew consisting of commander

Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (russian: Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for List of spac ...

and ESA-astronaut

Pedro Duque Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, OF, OMSE (Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer who served as Minister of Science of the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2021. He was also Member of the Congress of Deputies fro ...

were to spend about one week at the station and then return with the previous

Soyuz TMA-1 Soyuz TMA-1, also catalogued as Soyuz TM-35, was a 2002 Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle with a Russian-Belgian cosmonaut crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Thi ...

spacecraft. The third seat might have gone to the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Klaus von Storch Klaus Bernhard von Storch Krüger (born February 20, 1962) is a Chilean aerospace engineer and astronaut trainee. Von Storch was born in Osorno, in southern Chile. In 1992, he was selected by the Chilean Space Agency for the preparation for the ...

as a Chilean space agency (Agencia Chilena del Espacio) cosmonaut, but even before the Columbia disaster it looked like his flight would not happen, and the seat would go to the Russian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Oleg Kotov Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov (russian: Олег Валериевич Котов) was born on 27 October 1965 in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russian ...

or to deliver freight to the station. During his stay on the station, Malenchenko became the first person to get married in space. His bride was in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

where long distance marriages are legal. The spacecraft returned to Earth on October 28, with both the "Expedition 7" crew as well as

on board. Duque was launched with Soyuz TMA-3 and spent only one week on board of the ISS.

References

External links

RussianSpaceWeb.com: ''Soyuz TMA-2''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz TMA-02 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2003 Spacecraft which reentered in 2003 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets