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Soyuz TMA-19M has delivered the next expedition crew to the ISS

December 16, 2015

On Tuesday, December 15, transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19M designed and built by RSC Energia delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) the next expedition crew.

The crew of ISS-46/47 consists of a Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (Soyuz TMA-19M commander), a NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, and an ESA astronaut Timothy Peake.

Launch vehicle Soyuz-FG with the manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19M was launched from Area 1 ('Gagarin's launch pad') of the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 14:03:09 Moscow Time. The spacecraft rendezvoused with the station using a 'quick' four-orbit rendezvous profile and docked with the Rassvet module at 20:33:29 Moscow Time, during the 5th orbit of the flight in manual mode.

"The docking was performed in manual mode because of a malfunction in the automatic control. The commander switched to manual and everything went normally", - made a comment on the docking situation the acting head of the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos Alexander Ivanov.

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft also delivered to the ISS about 190 kg of various cargoes, including crew support supplies, onboard documentation packages, utilization payloads, accessories for video and photographic equipment, hardware and data storage media for science experiments, personal kits for the crew.

After performing a number of preparatory operations (removing and drying spacesuits, performing a leak test of compartments and the docking interface, equalizing pressure, etc.) transfer hatches between the spacecraft and the ISS were opened at 22:58 Moscow Time, and the newly arrived crewmembers transferred to the station. There they were met by Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko as well as a NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

During expedition ISS-46/47 the crew of Soyuz TMA-19M will jointly work with crews of ISS-43/44/45/46 and ISS-47/48, work with Russian cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-M and Progress MS, manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M and Soyuz TMA-20M, US cargo spacecraft Dragon and Cygnus, perform one spacewalk under the program of the ISS Russian Segment, run a program of applied science research and experiments, hold public relations events, take still pictures and videos, and perform symbolic activities. Altogether the expedition crewmembers will work in orbit for 173 days.

The manned transportation spacecraft of the new series Soyuz TMA-M developed and built by RSC Energia is an upgraded version of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft. It is equipped with new devices for the motion control and navigation system and an improved onboard measurement system. All the devices are built around state-of-the-art electronic components and run the latest software. The upgrade made it possible to reduce the mass of the onboard equipment and thus enhance the capability to deliver payload to orbit.

The spacecraft is designed to deliver the crews of up to three and their accompanying cargoes to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as to return them to Earth. When attached to the ISS, Soyuz TMA-M serves as a crew rescue vehicle and is kept permanently ready for emergency crew return to Earth.

The Russian Mini Research Module Rassvet (MRM1) was launched on Space Shuttle Atlantis with the mission STS-132 on May 14, 2010. The module developed and built by RSC Energia is used for scientific research and cargo storage. In particular, it serves as a laboratory for conducting experiments in biotechnology, biology, physics of liquids and educational research. "Rassvet also provides an additional docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft arriving to the station. The mass of the module is about 5 metric tons, its length is 5.9 meters, and its diameter is 2.2 meters.

 

Joint Stock Company RSC Energia is the leader in the rocket and space industry, and the prime contractor for manned space systems. It conducts work on the development of unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles), and high-technology systems for various non-space applications. Since August 2014, the Corporation is headed by Vladimir Solntsev.

 

 

RSC Energia press-center