Soyuz TMA-16M

Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.^[4] It transported three members of the Expedition 43 crew to the station. TMA-16M was the 125th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first having launched in 1967.

Soyuz TMA-16M

Soyuz TMA-16M approaches the ISS, 28 March 2015.
Operator	Roscosmos
COSPAR ID	2015-016A
SATCAT no.	40542
Mission duration	168d 5h 9m
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TMA 11F732A47 No.716
Manufacturer	Energia
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Gennady Padalka
Launching	Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly
Landing	Andreas Mogensen Aydyn Aimbetov
Callsign	Altair[1]
Start of mission
Launch date	27 March 2015 19:42:57 UTC[2]
Rocket	Soyuz-FG
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	12 September 2015 00:51 UTC
Landing site	Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Poisk zenith
Docking date	28 March 2015 01:33 UTC
Undocking date	28 August 2015 03:12 UTC
Time docked	153d 1h 39m
Docking with ISS (Relocation)
Docking port	Zvezda aft
Docking date	28 August 2015 03:30 UTC[3]
Undocking date	11 September 2015 21:29 UTC
Time docked	14d 17h 59m
(l-r) Kelly, Padalka, and Kornienko Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-17M →

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko performed the first one-year stay at the space station,^[4] returning on Soyuz TMA-18M.

Crew

Position[5]	Launching Crew Member	Landing Crew Member
Commander	Gennady Padalka, Roscosmos Expedition 43/44 Fifth and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Mikhail Korniyenko, Roscosmos Expedition 43/44/45/46 Second and last spaceflight	Andreas Mogensen, ESA Iriss[6] First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Scott Kelly, NASA Expedition 43/44/45/46 Fourth and last spaceflight	Aidyn Aimbetov[7], KazCosmos Visiting First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[8]	Crew Member
Commander	Aleksey Ovchinin, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1	Sergey Volkov, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 2	Jeffrey Williams, NASA

Mission highlights

Launch, rendezvous and docking

Soyuz TMA-16M was launched successfully aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 19:42 UTC on Friday, 27 March 2015. The spacecraft reached low Earth orbit approximately nine minutes after lift-off. After executing rendezvous maneuvers, the Soyuz docked with the zenith port of the International Space Station's Poisk module approximately six hours after launch, at 01:33 UTC on 28 March. The docking occurred over Colombia.^[9][10]

Soyuz TMA-16M remained docked to the ISS—serving as an emergency escape vehicle–until 12 September 2015, when it departed and returned Padalka, Andreas Mogensen, and Aydyn Aimbetov to Earth.^[7] This vehicle was previously scheduled to carry Sarah Brightman as a space tourist, but Brightman's flight was announced to be cancelled in May 2015.^[11]

Relocation maneuver

Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was relocated from Poisk module to the orbiting laboratory's Zvezda module service module on 28 August 2015.^[3] This cleared the Poisk module for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18M.

Undocking and return to Earth

Soyuz TMA-16M undocked from the ISS at 21:29 UTC on 11 September 2015, containing Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency. Following a deorbit burn, the Soyuz spacecraft's descent module reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 00:51 UTC on 12 September 2015, just over three hours after departing the ISS.^[12]

Gallery

• 
  Soyuz TMA-16M rocket shortly after rollout.
• 
  TMA-16M launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
• 
  Korniyenko (right), Padalka (center) and Kelly (left) inside the spacecraft prior to the relocation maneuver.
• 
  Departure of Soyuz TMA-16M.
• 
  Reentry of Soyuz TMA-16M as seen from the ISS.