Soyuz TMA-18M
was a 2015
Soyuz
spaceflight to the
International Space Station
. It provided the two twelve-months occupants (
Scott Kelly
and
Mikhail Korniyenko
) at the International Space Station with a fresh Soyuz capsule. TMA-18M was the 127th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft; the first having occurred in 1967. The ascent flight consisted of a Russian commander and two flight engineers from Denmark (ESA) and Kazakhstan respectively.
[1]
The flight launched in September 2015 and returned to Earth in March 2016.
The Kazakh
Aidyn Aimbetov
is of the first Kazakh cosmonaut class, and the first to fly.
[2]
The ESA astronaut
Andreas Mogensen
became the first Dane in space.
[3]
The descent crew was the same Russian commander and the two twelve-months occupants in March 2016. Two of the ascent crew members returned to Earth with
Soyuz TMA-16M
in September 2015.
Space tourist in the third seat
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Originally the third member should have been the British singer
Sarah Brightman
as a
space tourist
, but on May 13, 2015, she announced she had withdrawn from training.
[8]
Japanese entrepreneur
Satoshi Takamatsu
trained as Sarah Brightman's backup, but he withdrew from the flight as the art projects he had planned to carry out would not be ready by the September launch date. He stated he would try for a later flight when his projects were ready to fly.
[2]
Russian businessman
Filaret Galchev
was offered the seat, but he realized that he didn't have the time to prepare himself for the flight.
[1]
Roscosmos chose the Kazakh cosmonaut
Aidyn Aimbetov
as an alternative instead.
[2]
Later use
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See also
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References
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External links
edit