Soyuz TMA-16M
Soyuz TMA-16M approaches the ISS, 28 March 2015.
OperatorRoskosmos
COSPAR ID2015-016A
SATCAT no.40542
Mission duration168d 5h 9m
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TMA 11F732A47 No.716
ManufacturerRKK Energia
Crew
Crew size3
MembersGennady Padalka
LaunchingMikhail Korniyenko
Scott Kelly
LandingAndreas Mogensen
Aydyn Aimbetov
CallsignAltair[1]
Start of mission
Launch date27 March 2015
19:42:57 UTC[2]
RocketSoyuz-FG
Launch siteBaikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date12 September 2015
00:51 UTC
Landing siteKazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking portPoisk zenith
Docking date28 March 2015
01:33 UTC
Undocking date28 August 2015
03:12 UTC
Time docked153d 1h 39m
Docking with ISS
(Relocation)
Docking portZvezda aft
Docking date28 August 2015
03:30 UTC[3]
Undocking date11 September 2015
21:29 UTC
Time docked14d 17h 59m

(l-r) Kelly, Padalka and Kornienko
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)
 

Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.[4] It transported three members of the Expedition 43 crew to the Station. TMA-16M was the 125th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first having launched in 1967.

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko performed the first one-year stay at the Space Station,[4] returning in Soyuz TMA-18M.

Crew

Position[5] Launching Crew Member Landing Crew Member
Commander Russia Gennady Padalka, RSA
Expedition 43
Fifth and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA
Expedition 43
Second and last spaceflight		 Denmark Andreas Mogensen, ESA
Iriss[6]
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 United States Scott Kelly, NASA
Expedition 43
Fourth and last spaceflight		 Kazakhstan Aidyn Aimbetov[7], KazCosmos
N/A
First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[8] Crew Member
Commander Russia Aleksey Ovchinin, RSA
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Sergey Volkov, RSA
Flight Engineer 2 United States Jeffrey Williams, NASA

Mission highlights

Launch, rendezvous and docking

Soyuz TMA-16M was launched successfully aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 19:42 UTC on Friday, 27 March 2015. The spacecraft reached low Earth orbit approximately nine minutes after lift-off. After executing rendezvous maneuvers, the Soyuz docked with the zenith port of the International Space Station's Poisk module approximately six hours after launch, at 01:33 UTC on 28 March. The docking occurred over Colombia.[9][10]

Soyuz TMA-16M remained docked to the ISS—serving as an emergency escape vehicle–until 12 September 2015, when it departed and returned Padalka, Andreas Mogensen and Aydyn Aimbetov to Earth.[7] This vehicle was previously scheduled to carry Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but Brightman's flight was announced to be cancelled in May 2015.[11]

Relocation maneuver

Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was relocated from Poisk module to the orbiting laboratory's Zvezda module service module on 28 August 2015.[3] This cleared the Poisk module for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18M.

Undocking and return to Earth

Soyuz TMA-16M undocked from the ISS at 21:29 UTC on 11 September 2015, containing Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency. Following a deorbit burn, the Soyuz spacecraft's descent module reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 00:51 UTC on 12 September 2015, just over three hours after departing the ISS.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Soyuz TMA-16M mission updates Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Spaceflight101, 28 March 2015
  2. ↑ Clark, Stephen. "Live coverage: Crew ready to begin record-setting space mission". SpaceflightNow. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Soyuz Relocation". NASA. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission NASA, 26 November 2012.
  5. ↑ Планируемые полёты (in Russian). astronaut.ru. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  6. ↑ Agencia Espacial Europea. "Andreas Mogensen's mission name links cosmos and Earth". Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  7. 1 2 TASS (22 June 2015). "Kazakhstani cosmonaut to fly to ISS in September in place of British singer Brightman". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  8. ↑ astronaut.ru (2013). "Орбитальные полёты".
  9. ↑ "Soyuz TMA-16M kicks off historic one year expedition". NASASpaceflight.com. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "One Year Crew Arrives at Station". NASA. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Brightman steps down from station flight". Spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  12. ↑ "Soyuz Return to Earth". NASA. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
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