Soyuz TMA-18M

Soyuz TMA-18M

Soyuz TMA-18M undocks from the ISS, 2 March 2016.
Operator Roskosmos
COSPAR ID 2015-043A
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Soyuz-TMA 11F747 No.718
Manufacturer RKK Energia
Crew
Crew size 3
Members Sergey Volkov
Launching Andreas Mogensen
Aydyn Aimbetov
Landing Mikhail Korniyenko
Scott Kelly
Callsign Eridan
Start of mission
Launch date 2 September 2015
04:37:42 UTC
Rocket Soyuz-FG
End of mission
Landing date 2 March 2016
04:25:27 UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port Poisk
Docking date 4 September 2015
07:42:00 UTC
Undocking date 2 March 2016
01:02:30 UTC
Time docked 179 days, 17 hours, 20 minutes


(l-r) Mogensen, Volkov and Aimbetov


Soyuz programme
(Manned missions)
 Soyuz TMA-17M Soyuz TMA-19M

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.

Crew

Position[4] Launching Crew Member Landing Crew Member
Commander Russia Sergey Volkov, RSA
Expedition 45
Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Denmark Andreas Mogensen[5], ESA
IrISS[6]
First spaceflight
Russia Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA
Expedition 46
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 Kazakhstan Aidyn Aimbetov[1], KazCosmos
N/A
First spaceflight
United States Scott Kelly, NASA
Expedition 46
Fourth and last spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[7] Crew Member
Commander Russia Oleg Skripochka, RSA
Flight Engineer 1 France Thomas Pesquet, ESA
Flight Engineer 2 Russia Sergey Prokopyev[1], RSA

Space tourist in the third seat

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should have been the British singer Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but on May 13, 2015, she announced she had withdrawn from training.[8]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]

Landing

The spacecraft successfully landed on 2 March 2016 04:26 UTC,[9] returning the ISS year long mission crew.

See also

References

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