Soyuz TMA-17 was a

human 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 ...

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). TMA-17 crew members participated in ISS

Expedition 22 Expedition 22 was the 22nd long duration crew flight to the International Space Station (ISS). This expedition began on December 1, 2009 when the Expedition 21 crew departed. For a period of 3 weeks, there were only 2 crew members; it was the fi ...

and

Expedition 23 Expedition 23 (russian: МКС-23) was the 23rd long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 23 began with the Soyuz TMA-16 undocking on 18 March 2010. Shortly thereafter cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Mikhail Ko ...

. The mission ended when the Soyuz TMA-17 capsule landed on 2 June 2010.

Crew

Crew notes

Noguchi is the first Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

) astronaut and the second Japanese astronaut to fly on a Soyuz, after

Toyohiro Akiyama is a retired Japanese TV journalist and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In December 1990, he spent seven days aboard the Mir space station. He became the first person of Japanese nationality to fly in space, and his space mi ...

Backup crew

Launch and docking

Soyuz TMA-17 was launched on 20 December 2009 and transported three members of the ISS

crew to the station. Soyuz TMA-17 was the 104th flight of 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 ...

spacecraft. The Soyuz remained docked to the space station for the remainder of the Expedition 22 increment serving as an emergency escape vehicle. This mission marked the first Soyuz launch in the month of December for more than 19 years. The prior Soyuz launch in the month of December was

Soyuz TM-11 Soyuz TM-11 was the eleventh expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir, using a Soyuz-TM crew transport vessel. The mission notably carried a Japanese television reporter from Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Tokyo Broadcasting System.The ...

on 2 December 1990. This mission also included the last planned docking of a Soyuz at the nadir, or Earth-facing, port of the Zarya module. The '' Rassvet'' module was attached to Zarya's nadir port during the

STS-132 STS-132 ( ISS assembly flight ULF4) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' docked with the International Space Station on 16 May 2010. STS-132 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 14 May 2010. The prima ...

mission.

Relocation

On 12 May 2010, the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft was relocated to the aft port of the Zvezda module. At 14:23 UTC, Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi temporarily undocked the spacecraft from the nadir port of Zarya and flew it to the aft port of the

Zvezda service module ''Zvezda'' (russian: Звезда, meaning "star"), ''Salyut'' DOS-8, also known as the ''Zvezda'' Service Module, is a module of the International Space Station (ISS). It was the third module launched to the station, and provided all of t ...

. The docking occurred at 14:53 UTC. After hooks and latches were engaged, the crew conducted leak checks, opened hatches around 17:40 UTC and then re-entered the station through the service module.

Undocking and landing

Soyuz TMA-17 retro-rockets firing during landing

On 26 May 2010, the orbital altitude of the

(ISS) was lowered by 1.5 kilometers to 345 kilometers to ensure perfect conditions for the

re-entry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

of the Soyuz TMA-17 into the

Earth's atmosphere The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. The orbit of the ISS was adjusted using the four engines on board the

Progress M-05M Progress M-05M (russian: Прогресс М-05М, italic=yes), identified by NASA as Progress 37P, is a Progress spacecraft launched by the Russian Federal Space Agency in April 2010 to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The space ...

spacecraft. Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov was at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft as it undocked at 00:04 UTC on 2 June 2010 from the space station's

Zvezda module ''Zvezda'' (russian: Звезда, meaning "star"), ''Salyut'' DOS-8, also known as the ''Zvezda'' Service Module, is a module of the International Space Station (ISS). It was the third module launched to the station, and provided all of t ...

. The Soyuz TMA-17 crew capsule landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 03:25 UTC on 2 June 2010 wrapping up their stay aboard the space station.

References

External links

Image
of tower retraction. {{Orbital launches in 2009 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2009 Spacecraft which reentered in 2010 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets