News
May 29, 2014
Manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-13M has docked with the International Space Station!
A manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-13M has docked with the International Space Station (ISS).
Approach to it, its fly-around, stationkeeping and docking were performed normally, in automatic mode.
The initial contact with the docking port on the module Rassvet
of the ISS Russian segment occurred at 05:44 Moscow Time, 5 hours
46 minutes 20 seconds after the lift-off from the Baikonur launch
site.
The mission control and the monitoring of the spacecraft systems status during rendezvous and docking were provided by the Lead Operations Control Team working at the Mission Control Center near Moscow (MCC-M). The Flight Director is the RSC Energia First Deputy General Designer V.A. Soloviev.
The final flight operations in the course of the spacecraft rendezvous and docking with the space station were supervised by the State Commission for manned systems flight tests (the Chairman is is the head of Roskosmos O.N. Ostapenko) and the Technical Manager for flight tests of manned space systems, the RSC Energia President and General Designer V.A. Lopota.
After a leak test of the spacecraft compartments and the docking unit, and equalization of pressure between the space station and the spacecraft, the transfer hatches were opened. The spacecraft crew transferred to the Russian segment of the ISS.
Working on-board the space station began a joint international crew of 6, consisting of: Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev, Maxim Surayev, US astronaut Steven Swanson, Gregory Wiseman and european astronaut Alexander Gerst.
On-board systems of the ISS, and spacecraft Progress M-21M, Progress M-23M, Soyuz TMA-12M, Soyuz TMA-13M operate normally.
Present at MCC-M during the final operations of the spacecraft rendezvous and docking with ISS were representatives of Roscosmos, and foreign space agencies.
For reference:
- RSC Energia is the prime organization for developing and operating the ISS Russian segment, its modules and spacecraft Soyuz TMA and Progress M.
- Working at present within the ISS are 5 Russian-made modules (Zarya, Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk, Rassvet) and 4 Russian transportation spacecraft: two manned vehicles and two unmanned cargo vehicles.
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