News

July 15, 2012.
Soyuz TMA-05M is in space!
Y. Malenchenko, S. Williams, A. Hoshide are on their way to the International Space Station

In accordance with the mission plan of the International Space Station (ISS) and Russian commitments under this international project, a manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-05M was launched from Baikonur launch site at 06:40:03 AM Moscow Time.

The objective of the launch is to deliver to ISS a crew of three in order to bring the crew of Expedition Thirty Two (ISS-32) up to six.

The crew of Soyuz TMA-05M consists of: cosmonaut Y. Malenchenko (spacecraft Commander, Roscosmos), astronauts S. Williams (Flight Engineer of the spacecraft, NASA) and A. Hoshide (Flight Engineer 2 of the spacecraft, JAXA).

The spacecraft was put into a parking low-Earth orbit with the following parameters: 51.64 ° inclination , 201.68 km minimal altitude, 260.56 km maximum altitude, 88.82 minutes orbital period.

The onboard systems of the spacecraft operate normally.

At the launch site, the spacecraft prelaunch processing and launch were performed under the direction of the State Commission (chaired by the head of Roscosmos V.A. Popovkin). The Commission was basing its decisions to proceed with each next step in processing and launching on the final report of the Technical Management headed by the President of RSC Energia, Designer General V.A. Lopota.

According to the telemetry data and reports from the crew of ISS, the space station systems operate normally. The station is ready for docking with the spacecraft.

For information:

RSC Energia is the prime manned space flight organization in the Russian rocket and space industry, responsible for the development of the ISS Russian Segment, its integration into the Space Station and its operation, including development and operation of its principal modules (Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk, Rassvet, etc.), manufacturing, launch and operation of Soyuz TMA and Progress M spacecraft.

Currently working onboard ISS is the crew of ISS-32 consisting of: Russian cosmonauts G. Padalka and S. Revin (Roscosmos), US astronaut J. Acaba (NASA).

The docking of Soyuz TMA-05M with ISS is scheduled for July 17, 2012 at 08:52 AM Moscow Time.

For Y.Malenchenko, this is his fifth mission to space, for S.Williams and A.Hoshide, their second.

The manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-05M is the fifth spacecraft in a new series built on the basis of Soyuz TMA spacecraft. The launch of the first spacecraft in this series took place on October 08, 2010.