Soyuz MS-03

Soyuz MS-03 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 17 November 2016.^[1] It transported three members of the Expedition 50 crew to the International Space Station. MS-03 was the 132nd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander with American and French flight engineers.^[2]

Soyuz MS-03

Soyuz MS-03 docked to International Space Station (ISS).
Mission type	ISS crew transport
Operator	Roscosmos
COSPAR ID	2016-070A
SATCAT no.	41864
Mission duration	196 days 17 hours 49 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz MS
Spacecraft type	Soyuz MS 11F732A48
Manufacturer	Energia
Launch mass	7080 kg
Crew
Crew size	3 (launching) 2 (landing)
Members	Oleg Novitsky Thomas Pesquet
Launching	Peggy Whitson
Callsign	Kazbek
Start of mission
Launch date	17 November 2016, 20:17:00 UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-FG
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 1
Contractor	RKTs Progress
End of mission
Landing date	2 June 2017, 14:10 UTC
Landing site	Steppes of the Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Inclination	51.66°
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Rassvet nadir
Docking date	19 November 2016, 21:58 UTC
Undocking date	2 June 2017, 10:47 UTC
Time docked	194 days
(l-r) Pesquet, Whitson and Novitsky Soyuz programme (crewed) ← Soyuz MS-02 Soyuz MS-04 →

Crew

Position[3]	Launching Crew Member	Landing Crew Member
Commander	Oleg Novitsky, Roscosmos Expedition 50 Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Thomas Pesquet, ESA Expedition 50 First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Peggy Whitson, NASA Expedition 50/51/52 Third (last NASA)[4] spaceflight	N/A[5]

Backup crew

Position[6]	Crew Member
Commander	Fyodor Yurchikhin, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1	Jack D. Fischer, NASA
Flight Engineer 2	Paolo Nespoli, ESA

Mission highlights

Soyuz MS-03 launched with Expedition 50/51 on 17 November 2016, at 20:17 UTC. Astronaut Peggy Whitson, at age 56, became the oldest woman to fly into space.^[7][8] Soyuz MS-03 docked at the International Space Station on 19 November 2016.^[9] On 2 June 2017, Soyuz MS-03 undocked from the ISS, carrying Oleg Novitsky and Thomas Pesquet back to Earth after 196 days in space. Whitson remained on the ISS and returned on Soyuz MS-04 on 3 September 2017.