Soyuz TMA-03M was a spaceflight 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). It launched on 21 December 2011 from Site One at the Baikonur Cosmodrome,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, carrying three members of

Expedition 30 Expedition 30 was the 30th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition's first three crew members – Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin – arrived on the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-22 on 16 ...

to the ISS. TMA-03M was the 112th flight of a Russian

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 ...

, since the first in 1967, and the third flight of the modernised Soyuz-TMA-M version. The docking with the International Space Station took place at 19:19

Moscow Time Moscow Time (MSK, russian: моско́вское вре́мя) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has b ...

on 23 December, three minutes ahead of schedule.Состоялся запуск транспортного пилотируемого корабля «Союз ТМА-03М»

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

The crew were

Oleg Kononenko Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (russian: Олег Дмитриевич Кононенко; ; born 21 June 1964 in Turkmenistan) is a Russian cosmonaut from the Turkmen SSR. He has flown to the International Space Station four times, as a flight eng ...

(

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, commander),

André Kuipers André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth abo ...

(

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

) and

Donald Pettit Donald Roy Pettit (born April 20, 1955) is an American astronaut and chemical engineer. He is a veteran of two long-duration stays aboard the International Space Station, one Space Shuttle mission and a six-week expedition to find meteorites in ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

). The Soyuz remained aboard the space station for the Expedition 30 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle if needed. The capsule used in the mission can be seen at the Space Expo visitors center at the

European Space Research and Technology Centre The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alt ...

in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission insignia

The Soyuz TMA-03M mission insignia (or 'patch') was designed by Luc van den Abeelen, partially based on artwork by 11-year-old Alena Gerasimova from

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...

, Russia. Former Roscosmos head

Anatoly Perminov Anatoly Nikolayevich Perminov (russian: Анатолий Николаевич Перминов; born 16 June 1945) is a Russian rocket scientist and a mechanical engineer. He served as the General Director of Russian Federal Space Agency in 2004� ...

officially approved the patch on 9 March 2011. The Soyuz TMA-03M patch was the final patch based on the children's competition initiated for the

Soyuz TMA-14 The Soyuz TMA-14 (russian: Союз ТМА-14, ''Union TMA-14'') was a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Char ...

flight. The children's project had been organized by Roscosmos Public Relations and in mid-2011 the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center took over responsibility for the operational aspects of the Soyuz patches.

Mission details

The mission launched on 21 December 2011, at 17:16:15 Moscow time (13:16:15

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

) using the

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 "Polis ...

rocket system. After a 528-second flight, Soyuz ТМА-03М successfully disconnected from the third stage on a satellite orbit. Soyuz Commander Kononenko was launched from the Soyuz's center seat with flight engineer Donald Pettit strapped in to his right and ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers on his left. The launch occurred a little more than an hour after sunset at Baikonur in bitterly cold weather with temperatures near -18 degrees Celsius (0 F). Live television footage from inside the spacecraft's showed the crew members looking relaxed as they monitored the automated ascent. Shortly after the Soyuz slipped into a preliminary orbit, the Russian Mission Control said "Congratulations, guys, on a good insertion, (there are) no issues with telemetry or anything at all at this time, We wish you best of luck. You are experienced people, I'm sure everything is going to go very well". During the next two days after the launch, three major rendezvous burns were performed to put the spacecraft on a refined path to the ISS. File:Soyuz TMA-03M rollout 2.jpg, Rolling out to launch pad. File:Soyuz TMA-03M rocket.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft seen at the launch pad on 19 December 2011. File:Soyuz_TMA-03M_crew_members_wave_farewell.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M crew members wave farewell from the base of the rocket. File:Soyuz TMA-03M rocket launches 2 cropped.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M lifts off from Baikonur on 21 December 2011.

Docking

Following the two-day rendezvous, the Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked to the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) "Rassvet" Nadir docking port at 15:19 GMT on 23 December 2011. The port was vacated just over one month earlier by the

Soyuz TMA-02M Soyuz TMA-02M was a space mission that transported three members of the Expedition 28 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-02M was the 110th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft (first launched 1967) and the second flight of the improved Soyuz ...

. The entire process of approaching and docking with the ISS went nominally as planned. After arriving in the vicinity of the ISS, the spacecraft made a short flyaround maneuver to achieve a perfect alignment with the Docking Port on the Rassvet Module. The station keeping started at a distance of 200 meters to the docking target. This gave teams inside the Russian Mission Control adequate time to evaluate systems and alignment. The final GO for approach came after just a few minutes and Soyuz Commander Kononenko sent the command for the final phase of the docking operation. The docking occurred three minutes ahead of previously announced time of 19:22:41 Moscow Time when the Soyuz TMA-03M gently came into contact with the ISS at a relative velocity of less than 0.3 m/s. At the time of docking, the two spacecraft were sailing 240 miles over southern Russia. Soft Docking was confirmed shortly thereafter and hooks and latches were closed 10 minutes after docking to form a hard-mate between space station and the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft. Extensive leak checks and vehicle reconfigurations were made from both sides of the docking system before Mission Control gave a GO to open the hatches between the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft and the ISS. Following the hatch opening, the crew members floated aboard the ISS to greet the already-aboard

Dan Burbank Daniel Christopher Burbank (born July 27, 1961) is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Burbank, a Captain in the United States Coast Guard, is the second Coast Guard astronaut after Bruce Melnick. Early ...

Anton Shkaplerov Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (russian: Антон Николаевич Шкаплеров; born 20 February 1972) is a Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights. Personal life Shkaplerov is married to Tatyana Petrovna, and they ...

and

Anatoli Ivanishin Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin (russian: link=no, Анатолий Алексеевич Иванишин; born 15 January 1969) is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TM ...

. Together, the two crews formed the full group of

until March 2012. File:Soyuz TMA-03M docking.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M approaches the Rassvet module for docking. File:ISS-30 Soyuz TMA-03M and Progress M-13M.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M docked to Rassvet and Progress M-13M docked to Pirs. File:ISS-32 Soyuz TMA-03M undocks from the Rassvet Mini-Research Module.jpg, Soyuz TMA-03M undocks from the Rassvet Mini-Research Module.

Return to Earth

Soyuz TMA-03M undocked from the ISS on 1 July 2012 at 4:47 AM (GMT), carrying Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers, and landed safely near

Zhezkazgan Jezkazgan, or Zhezkazgan ( kk, Жезқазған, translit=Jezqazğan ), formerly known as Dzhezkazgan (russian: Джезказган) until 1992, is a city and the administrative centre of Ulytau Region, Kazakhstan, on a reservoir of the Kar ...

, at 8:14 AM the same day. The spacecraft's departure ended

Expedition 31 Expedition 31 was the 31st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). It began on 27 April 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, which returned the Expedition 30 crew to Earth. The expeditio ...

, and left astronauts

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 ...

Sergei Revin Sergei Nikolayevich Revin (born January 12, 1966 in Moscow) is a Russian cosmonaut that was selected in 1996, and completed spaceflight training in 1998. He served as a crew member aboard the International Space Station, having launched on his f ...

and Joseph Acaba aboard the station to begin

Expedition 32 Expedition 32 was the 32nd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). It began on 1 July 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, which returned the Expedition 31 crew to Earth, and conclude ...

. Soyuz TMA-03M capsule descends past helicopter (201207010008HQ).jpg, The Soyuz TMA-03M capsule descends past helicopter. Soyuz TMA-03M capsule lands.jpg, The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft lands in central Kazakhstan. Soyuz TMA-03M capsule with Russian Search and Rescue crews.jpg, Russian Search and Rescue crews attach ladders and a slide for access to the capsule. Soyuz TMA-03M crew after landing.jpg, The Soyuz crew is pictured shortly after landing. Soyuz TMA-03M crew shortly after landing - cropped.jpg, Support and medical personnel carry the crew to the medical tent.

References

External links

Videos of the launch and preparations

PromISSe official ESA web site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz TMA-M03 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2011 Spacecraft which reentered in 2012 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights