Soyuz TMA-15 was a

crewed spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

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 ...

. Part of the

Soyuz programme The Soyuz programme ( , ; russian: link=no, Союз , meaning "Union") is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a So ...

, it transported three members of the

Expedition 20 Expedition 20 was the 20th long-duration flight to the International Space Station. The expedition marked the first time a six-member crew inhabited the station. Because each Soyuz-TMA spacecraft could hold only three people, two separate laun ...

crew to the space station. TMA-15 was the 102nd crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, since

Soyuz 1 Soyuz 1 (russian: Союз 1, ''Union 1'') was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. Th ...

in 1967. The Soyuz spacecraft remained docked to the space station during Expedition 20 and

Expedition 21 Expedition 21 was the 21st long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began on 11 October 2009, with Frank de Winne becoming the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission. The handover between Expeditio ...

as an emergency escape vehicle. The mission marked the start of six-person crew operations on the ISS.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-15 was launched successfully 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 "Polis ...

carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

from Site 1/5 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

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 ...

, at 10:34 UTC on 27 May 2009. It docked with the ISS at 12:34 UTC on 29 May 2009.

Roman Romanenko Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force; russian: Роман Юрьевич Романенко; born 9 August 1971) is a Russian retired cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He is also a politician, sitting in the ...

was the third second-generation space traveller. He was reported to have chosen Taymyr (russian: Таймыр) as the mission callsign because it was the callsign on his father's first flight,

Soyuz 26 Soyuz 26 (russian: Союз 26, ''Union 26'') was a Soviet space mission which launched the crew of Salyut 6 EO-1, the first long duration crew on the space station Salyut 6. The Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( R ...

; however, the callsign Parus (russian: Парус meaning

Sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...

) was used for communications with the spacecraft. Robert Thirsk became the first Canadian to fly on a Soyuz; all previous Canadians in space had flown aboard

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

Frank De Winne Frank, Viscount De Winne (born 25 April 1961, in Ledeberg, Belgium) is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space (after Dirk Frimout). He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission ...

became the first European to be in command of the ISS. The craft and crew returned to earth 1 December 2009.

References

External links

Подросток нарисовал эмблему миссии "Союза"
{{Use dmy dates, date=January 2014 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2009 Spacecraft which reentered in 2009 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets