Soyuz TMA-18M

Mission emblem

Mission dates

Mission:

Soyuz TMA-18M

COSPAR-ID :

2015-043A

Spacecraft:

Soyuz 7K-STMA-Z ( GRAY index 11F747)
serial number 718

Launcher:

Soyuz FG (GRAY index 11A511FG)

Call sign:

Эридан (" Eridanus ")

Crew:

3

Begin:

September 2, 2015, 04:37 UTC

Starting place:

Baikonur 1/5

Space station:

ISS

Docking place:

Poisk

Coupling:

September 4, 2015, 07:39 UTC

Decoupling:

March 2, 2016, 01:02 UTC

Duration on the ISS :

179d 17h 23min

Landing:

March 2, 2016, 04:25 UTC

Landing place:

157 km SE of Sheqasghan , Kazakhstan
47 ° 21 ′ N , 69 ° 42 ′ E

Flight duration:

181d 23h 48min

Earth orbits:

2833

Team photo

Andreas Mogensen, Sergei Wolkow, Aidyn Aimbetow

◄ Before / After ►

Soyuz TMA-17M
(manned)

Soyuz TMA-19M
(manned)

Soyuz TMA-18M is a mission name for a flight of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz to the International Space Station . As part of the ISS program, the flight was designated ISS AF-44S. It was the 44th visit by a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS and the 150th flight in the Soyuz program.

crew

Starting crew

Sergei Alexandrowitsch Volkov (3rd space flight), commander ( Russia / Roscosmos )
Andreas Mogensen (1st space flight), flight engineer ( Denmark / ESA )
Aidyn Aimbetow (1st space flight), flight engineer ( Kazakhstan / KazKosmos )

Substitute team

Oleg Iwanowitsch Skripotschka (2nd space flight), Commander (Russia / Roscosmos)
Thomas Pesquet (1st spaceflight), flight engineer ( France / ESA)
Sergei Valerjewitsch Prokopjew (1st space flight), flight engineer (Russia / Roscosmos)

Return crew

Sergei Alexandrowitsch Volkov (3rd space flight), commander (Russia / Roscosmos)
Michail Borissowitsch Kornijenko (2nd space flight), flight engineer (Russia / Roskosmos)
Scott Joseph Kelly (4th spaceflight), flight engineer ( USA / NASA )

Mission description

With Sergei Volkov, the mission only brought a long-term crew member from ISS expeditions 45 and 46 to the International Space Station. The Soyuz spacecraft replaced the Soyuz TMA-16M as a rescue capsule because the Soyuz spacecraft only have a 210-day operational guarantee. Andreas Mogensen only stayed a week and returned with the Soyuz TMA-16M.

For the first time on the ISS, the working time of crew members (Michail Kornijenko and Scott Kelly) was extended to almost a year in order to be able to better study the effects of long-term weightlessness with regard to a manned flight to Mars . The space freed up in the Soyuz spaceship was initially sold to space tourist Sarah Brightman , who, as it became known on May 13, 2015, postponed the flight indefinitely due to unnamed family problems. Her place was awarded to Aidyn Aimbetow from Kazakhstan on June 22, 2015 . Aimbetow had already been scheduled for an ISS stay in 2009, which was then canceled.

After a two-day solo flight, Soyuz TMA-18M docked with the ISS on September 4, 2015. The last usual rendezvous after a six-hour flight with four orbits of the earth could not be carried out because in August 2015 the ISS had to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision with space debris. As a result, the orbit height of the space station was no longer suitable for an "express approach".

Aimbetow and the Danish ESA astronaut Mogensen completed a short-term ISS mission and have already returned to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-16M. Mogensen was the first Dane to fly into space.

Soyuz TMA-18M undocked on March 2, 2016 punctually at 01:02 UTC with Volkov, Korniyenko and Kelly on board. This marked the beginning of Expedition 47 on the ISS with Timothy Kopra as commander. With the landing in the foreseen area, the ISS Expedition 46 was finally and successfully completed.