Soyuz TMA-15

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Soyuz TMA-15
Mission type ISS crew rotation
Operator Roskosmos
COSPAR ID 2009-030A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no. 35010
Mission duration 6 months and 4 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Soyuz-TMA 11F732
Manufacturer RKK Energia
Crew
Crew size 3
Members Roman Romanenko
Frank De Winne
Robert Brent Thirsk
Callsign Таймыр ( Taymyr ) [1] or
Парус (Parus, meaning Sail ) [1]
Start of mission
Launch date 27 May 2009, 10:34:53  ( 2009-05-27UTC10:34:53Z )  UTC [2] [3]
Rocket Soyuz-FG
Launch site Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date 1 December 2009, 07:17  ( 2009-12-01UTC07:18Z )  UTC [4]
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee altitude 151 kilometres (94 mi)
Apogee altitude 414 kilometres (257 mi)
Inclination 51.6 degrees
Period 90.16 minutes
Epoch 28 May 2009 [5]
Docking with ISS
Docking port Zarya  nadir
Docking date 29 May 2009
12:34 UTC
Undocking date 1 December 2009
03:56 UTC [6]
Time docked 185d 15h 22m

From left to right; Thirsk, Romanenko and De Winne
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)
 

Soyuz TMA-15 was a crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station . Part of the Soyuz programme , it transported three members of the Expedition 20 crew to the space station. TMA-15 was the 102nd crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, since Soyuz 1 in 1967. The Soyuz spacecraft remained docked to the space station during Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 as an emergency escape vehicle. The mission marked the start of six-person crew operations on the ISS.

Crew [ edit ]

Position [7] [8] Crew Member
Commander Russia Roman Romanenko
Expedition 20
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Belgium Frank De Winne , ESA
Expedition 20
Second and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 Canada Robert Thirsk , CSA
Expedition 20
Second and last spaceflight

Backup crew [ edit ]

Position Cosmonaut
Commander Russia Dmitrij Kondratiyev
Flight Engineer 1 Netherlands Andre Kuipers , ESA
Flight Engineer 2 Canada Chris Hadfield , CSA

Mission highlights [ edit ]

The rollout of Soyuz TMA-15 on 25 May, with an American flag painted on the capsule

Soyuz TMA-15 was launched successfully by a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan , at 10:34 UTC on 27 May 2009. It docked with the ISS at 12:34 UTC on 29 May 2009.

Roman Romanenko 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 ; [1] however, the callsign Parus ( Russian : Парус meaning Sail ) was used for communications with the spacecraft. [1] Robert Thirsk became the first Canadian to fly on a Soyuz; all previous Canadians in space had flown aboard Space Shuttles . Frank De Winne became the first European to be in command of the ISS.

The craft and crew returned to earth 1 December 2009.

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ a b c d NASA TV coverage of the launch of Soyuz TMA-15, 2009-05-27
  2. ^ CSA (2008). "Canadian astronauts Julie Payette and Robert Thirsk to go on space missions in 2009" . CSA. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009 . Retrieved 27 February 2008 .
  3. ^ NASA. "Consolidated Launch Manifest" . NASA . Retrieved 28 March 2009 .
  4. ^ NASA (24 November 2009). "NASA TV to Broadcast Space Station Crew Soyuz Landing Events" . NASA . Retrieved 1 December 2009 .
  5. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog" . Jonathan's Space Page . Retrieved 6 January 2014 .
  6. ^ Zak, Anatoly. "Mission of Soyuz TMA-15" . RussianSpaceWeb . Retrieved 6 January 2014 .
  7. ^ NASA (11 February 2008). "NASA Assigns Crews for STS-127 and Expedition 19 Missions" . NASA . Retrieved 11 February 2008 .
  8. ^ ESA (2008). "Frank De Winne prepares for new mission" . ESA . Retrieved 3 November 2008 .