Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the

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

.NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission
NASA, 2012-11-26. It transported three members of the

Expedition 43 Expedition 43 was the 43rd expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced on 11 March 2015 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M, returning the crew of Expedition 42 to Earth and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M on 11 June 20 ...

crew to the Station. TMA-16M was the 125th flight of a

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 spacecr ...

, the first having launched in 1967. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko performed the first one-year stay at the Space Station, returning in Soyuz TMA-18M.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission highlights

Launch, rendezvous and docking

Soyuz TMA-16M was launched successfully aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

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 19:42 UTC on Friday, 27 March 2015. The spacecraft reached

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never m ...

approximately nine minutes after lift-off. After executing rendezvous maneuvers, the Soyuz docked with the

zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

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 Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

. Soyuz TMA-16M remained docked to the ISS—serving as an emergency escape vehicle–until September 12, 2015, when it departed and returned Padalka,

Andreas Mogensen Andreas Enevold Mogensen (born 2 November 1976) is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a number of ...

and Aydyn Aimbetov to Earth. This vehicle was previously scheduled to carry

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers who appeal to different types of audience. This can be seen, for example, (especially in the United State ...

as a space tourist, but Brightman's flight was announced to be cancelled in May 2015.

Relocation maneuver

Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was relocated from Poisk module to the orbiting laboratory's Zvezda module service module on 28 August 2015. 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.

Gallery

File:Expedition 43 Soyuz Rollout (201503250027HQ).jpg, Soyuz TMA-16M rocket shortly after rollout. File:Expedition 43 Launch (201503280001HQ).jpg, TMA-16M launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. File:ISS-44 Soyuz TMA-16M relocation.jpg, Korniyenko (right), Padalka (center) and Kelly (left) inside the spacecraft prior to the relocation maneuver. File:ISS-45 Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft shortly after undocking.jpg, Departure of Soyuz TMA-16M. File:Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft reentry.jpg, Reentry of Soyuz TMA-16M as seen from the ISS.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz TMA-M16 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2015 2015 in Russia Spacecraft which reentered in 2015 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets