Soyuz TMA-10 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 using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from 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 ( ...

(ISS). The mission began at 17:31:09 UTC on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched 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 ...

by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. Soyuz TMA-10 brought to the station two members of ISS Expedition 15 crew, along with one

spaceflight participant Spaceflight participant (russian: участник космического полета, translit=uchastnik kosmicheskogo polyota) is the term used by NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, ...

. It remained at the space station as an escape craft until it was replaced by Soyuz TMA-11 in October 2007. SoyuzTMA-10 Approaches ISS

Crew

Backup crew

Docking with ISS

*Docked to ISS: 9 April 2007, 19:10 UTC (to nadir port of

Zarya Zarya may refer to: *Zorya, personification of dawn in Slavic mythology * Zarya (antenna), a type of medium-wave broadcasting antenna used in former Soviet Union *Zarya (ISS module) is a module of the International Space Station. * ''Zarya'' (magazi ...

) *Undocking from ISS: 27 September 2007 20:20 UTC (from nadir port of

) *Docking to ISS: 27 September 2007 20:47 UTC (to aft port of Zvezda) *Undocking from ISS: 21 October 2007 07:14 UTC (from aft port of Zvezda)

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-10 docked to the ISS on April 9, 2007 at 22:10 UTC, following two days of free flight. Its two Russian crew members remained on the station until the spacecraft's return to Earth in October 2007. Spaceflight participant

Charles Simonyi Charles Simonyi (; hu, Simonyi Károly, ; born September 10, 1948) is a Hungarian-American software architect. He started and led Microsoft's applications group, where he built the first versions of Microsoft Office. He co-founded and led I ...

returned to Earth aboard

Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz TMA-9 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was a human spaceflight mission transporting personnel to and from the ISS. It launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September ...

on April 21, following eleven days of ISS handover operations. TMA-10 undocked from the ISS at 07:14 UTC on October 21, and deorbit occurred at 09:47. During

atmospheric 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 ...

, the spacecraft transitioned to a ballistic reentry, resulting in it landing west of Arkalyk, approximately northwest of the intended

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 ...

landing site. The trajectory was reported by the crew as soon as they came out of the communications blackout caused by plasma surrounding the spacecraft. (A ballistic trajectory is a backup re-entry mode that takes over if something fails during normal re-entry.) A Commission of Inquiry determined that the ballistic re-entry was caused by damage to a cable in the spacecraft's control panel, which connected to the control panel with the Soyuz descent equipment. Landing occurred at 10:36 GMT. A ballistic trajectory entry had happened previously, with the Soyuz TMA-1 mission that returned

Expedition 6 Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station (25 November 2002 - 3 May 2003). It was the last three-man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121. The crew performed two spacewalks in support of main ...

. The information about the failure of a connector in service panel was faulty. In actuality, the Service module (PAO) had failed to separate from the re-entry module (SA), and the ship had entered the atmosphere with the opposite orientation. Explosive bolts in connection struts between the Re-entry module and the Service module had failed to explode. The heat had melted the failed struts and the re-entry module had separated from the service module - the changed trajectory of the ship had caused the switch to a ballistic emergency landing. The same situation had happened during the Soyuz 5 mission in 1969. The Soyuz re-entry module was, and still is, protected on all sides with thermal insulation, so the struts melted before the crew entry hatch was damaged or destroyed, thus saving the crew. The Russians kept the failure of the Soyuz TMA-10 a secret until it happened again on the Soyuz TMA-11 with a NASA astronaut on board. This infuriated NASA (the Commission of Inquiry had lied to them) and this led to further investigation as well as special EVA activity on the ISS to check the docked Soyuz TMA-12 and its explosive bolts in their connection struts.

References

External links

Charles in Space
{{Orbital launches in 2007 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2007 Orbital space tourism missions Spacecraft which reentered in 2007 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets