Soyuz TMA-8

Mission emblem

Mission dates

Mission:

Soyuz TMA-8

COSPAR-ID :

2006-009A

Spacecraft:

Soyuz 7K-STA ( GRAY index 11F732)
serial number 218

Dimensions:

7270 kg

Launcher:

Soyuz FG (GRAY index 11A511FG)

Call sign:

Карат ("carat")

Crew:

3

Begin:

March 30, 2006, 02:30:18 UTC

Starting place:

Baikonur 1/5

Space station:

ISS

Coupling:

1 April 2006 04:19:26 UTC
to the module Zarya

Decoupling:

September 28, 2006, 21:53:09 UTC
from the Zarya module

Landing:

September 29, 2006, 01:13:37 UTC

Landing place:

Kazakhstan, 51 ° 2'42 "N / 67 ° 17'58" E

Flight duration:

182d 22h 43min 17s

Earth orbits:

2886

Rotation time :

88.64 min

Apogee :

241 km

Perigee :

200 km

Team photo

v. l. No. Pontes, Williams and Vinogradov

◄ Before / After ►

Soyuz TMA-7
(manned)

Soyuz TMA-9
(manned)

Soyuz TMA-8 is the mission name for the flight of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) . As part of the ISS program, the flight is designated ISS AF-12S . It is the twelfth visit by a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS and the 118th flight in the Russian Soyuz program.

crew

Starting crew

Pawel Wladimirowitsch Winogradow (2nd space flight), Commander (Roskosmos / Russia)
Jeffrey Nels Williams (2nd spaceflight), flight engineer (NASA / USA)
Marcos César Pontes (1st space flight), flight engineer ( AEB / Brazil )Brazil

Substitute team

Fjodor Nikolajewitsch Yurtschichin , Commander (Roskosmos / Russia)
Edward Michael Fincke , flight engineer (NASA / USA)
Sergei Alexandrowitsch Wolkow , flight engineer (Roskosmos / Russia)

Return crew

Pawel Wladimirowitsch Winogradow (2nd space flight), Commander (Roskosmos / Russia)

Jeffrey Nels Williams (2nd spaceflight), flight engineer (NASA / USA)

Anousheh Ansari , space tourist ( United States / Iran )United States Iran

Mission overview

Soyuz TMA-8 launch

This flight was a crew exchange mission to the ISS and the 29th manned flight to this station. Expedition 12 , which was working on the space station, was replaced by the crew of Expedition 13 . It consisted of the Russian cosmonaut Pavel Winogradov and the American Jeffrey Williams . The first spaceman in Brazil, Marcos Pontes , also took part in the flight.

NASA paid the Russian space agency $ 43.8 million for the flight from Jeffrey Williams to the ISS and for the return flight of the commander of ISS Expedition 12, William McArthur. This sum also covered the costs of the Soyuz spacecraft in the event of an emergency return and the costs of training the next US astronaut Michael López-Alegría , who flew with the Soyuz TMA-9 .

The launch took place at a carrier rocket of the type Soyuz-FG from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 30, 2006 at 02:30:18 UTC. Nine minutes after the launch, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the rocket, after which the solar panels were unfolded. During the entry into orbit, there were minor problems with the reception of the telemetry data in the control center , but these had no effect on the flight. As a reason of problems came with the transfer of data over a Molniya - communications satellites out. Docking with the ISS (on the Sarja module in automatic mode) took place as planned on April 1, 2006 at 04:19:26 UTC over China.

Two exits (EVAs) were planned. The first took place in June and was conducted by Jeff Williams and Pawel Vinogradov. The second exit followed in August, this time Jeff Williams and the German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter worked outside the station.

On August 31, 2006, Roskosmos postponed the launch of Soyuz TMA-9 by four days in order not to have to dock at the station during the STS-115 space shuttle mission . This also shifted the Soyuz TMA-8 landing date from September 24th to 29th.

Further details regarding the work of the crew on the ISS are described in the article ISS Expedition 13 .