Soyuz TMA-3
Encyclopedia
Mission parameters
-
- Mass: ? kg
- Perigee: 193 km
- Apogee: 227 km
- Inclination: 51.7°
- Period: 88.6 min
Docking with ISS
- Docked to ISS: October 20, 2003, 07:16 UTC (to Pirs module)
- Undocked from ISS: April 29, 2004, 20:52 UTC (from Pirs module)
Specifications
- Max. altitude - 387.1 km
- Min. altitude - 357.9 km
- Period - 91.7 min
- Inclination - 65.64°.
Mission highlights
The commander of the Soyuz was Alexander Kaleri (Russia). The flight engineer was Michael FoaleMichael Foale
Colin Michael Foale, CBE, PhD is a British-American astrophysicist with dual citizenship and a NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space shuttle missions and extended stays on both Mir and the International Space Station...
(USA), and Pedro Duque
Pedro Duque
Pedro Duque Duque is a Spanish astronaut and a veteran of two space missions.Duque earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1986. He worked for GMV and for the European Space Agency for six years before being selected as an astronaut candidate in...
from Spain served as the second flight engineer. After docking with the ISS they exchanged the current crew on ISS and became the eighth station crew, called "ISS Expedition Eight". During the stay on the station Michael Foale was the ISS Commander, while Alexander Kaleri was the engineer. Foale was the first American to have served on both Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
and the ISS. Pedro Duque performed some ESA sponsored science experiments under the mission name Cervantes and then returned with the ISS 7 crew on Soyuz TMA-2
Soyuz TMA-2
Soyuz TMA-2 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle...
.
The backup crew was William McArthur
William S. McArthur
William Surles McArthur, Jr. is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, a NASA astronaut, and a veteran of three space shuttle missions and one expedition to the International Space Station via the Russian Soyuz capsule.-Army career:...
, Valery Tokarev
Valery Tokarev
Valeri Ivanovich Tokarev , Russian Air Force Colonel and test cosmonaut at the Yuri A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, was born October 29, 1952 in the town of Kap-Yar, Astrakhan Oblast and currently resides at Star City, Moscow Region. He has traveled to space twice and has performed two career...
and André Kuipers
André Kuipers
André Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He officially became the second Dutch and the third Dutch-born astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on April 19, 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-3 11 days later.Kuipers is scheduled to become the first Dutch astronaut to...
.
Foale and Kaleri along with André Kuipers
André Kuipers
André Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He officially became the second Dutch and the third Dutch-born astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on April 19, 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-3 11 days later.Kuipers is scheduled to become the first Dutch astronaut to...
, the third seater from TMA-4
Soyuz TMA-4
Soyuz TMA-4 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was launched on April 19, 2004 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Gennady Padalka from Russia, Michael Fincke from the USA and André Kuipers from the Netherlands were flown to the International...
landed on April 29, 2004, near Arkalyk
Arkalyk
Arkalyk is a city in Kostanay Province, northern Kazakhstan. Earlier, it was the centre of Torgay province, which was abolished in 1997. Today, it is the administrative centre of Torgay region, Kostanay province....
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
. A minor helium leak did not affect their mission.