Soyuz TMA-18M

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Soyuz TMA-18M
Operator Roskosmos
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Soyuz-TMA 11F747
Manufacturer RKK Energia
Crew
Crew size 3
Members Sergey Volkov
Launching Andreas Mogensen
Aydyn Aimbetov
Landing Mikhail Korniyenko
Scott Kelly
Start of mission
Launch date September 2, 2015
04:37:42 UTC
Rocket Soyuz-FG
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port Poisk
Docking date September 4, 2015
07:42:00 UTC
Undocking date March 3, 2016
(Planned)

Soyuz-TMA-18M-Mission-Patch.png Soyuz TMA-18M crew portrait.jpg
(l-r) Aimbetov, Volkov and Mogensen


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

Soyuz TMA-18M is a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 2 September 2015. It will provide the two twelve-months occupants (Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a fresh Soyuz capsule. TMA-18M is the 127th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft; the first having occurred in 1967. The ascent flight consists of a Russian commander and two flight engineers from Denmark (ESA) and Kazakhstan respectively.[1]

The Kazakh Aidyn Aimbetov is of the first Kazakh cosmonaut class, and the first selected to fly.[2] The ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen became the first Dane in space.[3]

The descent crew will be 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[edit]

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

Backup crew[edit]

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

Space tourist in the third seat[edit]

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should have been the British singer Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but on May 13, 2015, she announced she had withdrawn from training.[8]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

References[edit]

External links[edit]