Soyuz TMA-10 was a

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

mission using a

Soyuz-TMA The Soyuz-TMA () was a spacecraft built by Energia and used by Roscosmos for human spaceflight. It is a revision of the Soyuz spacecraft introduced in 2001 and was in use until 2012 after being superseded in 2010 by the Soyuz TMA-M. While it lo ...

spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). The mission began at 17:31:09

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

by a

Soyuz FG The Soyuz-FG was an improved variant of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle from the R-7 rocket family, developed by the Progress Rocket Space Centre in Samara, Russia. It featured upgraded first and second stage engines, RD-107A and RD-108A, respective ...

launch vehicle. Soyuz TMA-10 brought to the station two members of ISS

Expedition 15 Expedition 15 was the 15th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). Four crew members participated in the expedition, although for most of the expedition's duration only three were on the station at any one time. During Expedition 15 ...

crew, along with one

spaceflight participant Spaceflight participant () is the term used by NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, but are not professional astronauts. While the term gained new prominence with the rise of space touris ...

. It remained at the space station as an escape craft until it was replaced by Soyuz TMA-11 in October 2007. SoyuzTMA-10 Approaches ISS

Crew

Backup crew

Docking with ISS

*Docked to ISS: 9 April 2007, 19:10 UTC (to nadir port of Zarya) *Undocking from ISS: 27 September 2007 20:20 UTC (from nadir port of Zarya) *Docking to ISS: 27 September 2007 20:47 UTC (to aft port of Zvezda) *Undocking from ISS: 21 October 2007 07:14 UTC (from aft port of Zvezda)

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-10 docked to the ISS on April 9, 2007 at 22:10

, following two days of free flight. Its two Russian crew members remained on the station until the spacecraft's return to Earth in October 2007. Spaceflight participant

Charles Simonyi Charles Simonyi (; , ; born September 10, 1948) is a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American software architect. He introduced the graphical user interface to Bill Gates for the first time who later described it as the first of two revolutiona ...

returned to Earth aboard

Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz TMA-9 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was a human spaceflight mission transporting personnel to and from the ISS. It launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 Septembe ...

on April 21, following eleven days of ISS handover operations. TMA-10 undocked from the ISS at 07:14 UTC on October 21, and deorbit occurred at 09:47. During

atmospheric re-entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

, the spacecraft transitioned to a

ballistic reentry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

, resulting in it landing west of

Arkalyk Arkalyk or Arqalyq (, ', ; ) is a city in Kostanay Region, northern Kazakhstan. Earlier, it was the centre of Torgay Region, which was abolished in 1997. Established in 1956, it acquired the status of the city in 1965. The distance from the town ...

, approximately northwest of the intended

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

landing site. The trajectory was reported by the crew as soon as they came out of the

communications blackout In telecommunications, communications blackouts are * a cessation of communications or communications capability, caused by a lack of power to a communications facility or to communications equipment. * a total lack of radio communications cap ...

caused by plasma surrounding the spacecraft. (A ballistic trajectory is a backup re-entry mode that takes over if something fails during normal re-entry.) A Commission of Inquiry determined that the ballistic re-entry was caused by damage to a cable in the spacecraft's control panel, which connected to the control panel with the Soyuz descent equipment. Landing occurred at 10:36 GMT. A ballistic trajectory entry had happened previously, with the

Soyuz TMA-1 Soyuz TMA-1, also catalogued as Soyuz TM-35, was a 2002 Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle with a Russian-Belgian cosmonaut crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. T ...

mission that returned

Expedition 6 Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station (25 November 2002 – 3 May 2003). It was the last three-man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121 in 2006, delivering the final astronaut of Expedi ...

. The information about the failure of a connector in service panel was faulty. In actuality, the Service module (PAO) had failed to separate from the re-entry module (SA), and the ship had entered the atmosphere with the opposite orientation. Explosive bolts in connection struts between the Re-entry module and the Service module had failed to explode. The heat had melted the failed struts and the re-entry module had separated from the service module - the changed trajectory of the ship had caused the switch to a ballistic emergency landing. The same situation had happened during the Soyuz 5 mission in 1969. The Soyuz re-entry module was, and still is, protected on all sides with thermal insulation, so the struts melted before the crew entry hatch was damaged or destroyed, thus saving the crew. The Russians kept the failure of the Soyuz TMA-10 a secret until it happened again on the Soyuz TMA-11 with a NASA astronaut on board. This infuriated NASA (the Commission of Inquiry had lied to them) and this led to further investigation as well as special EVA activity on the ISS to check the docked Soyuz TMA-12 and its explosive bolts in their connection struts.

References

External links

Charles in Space

{{Orbital launches in 2007 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2007 Orbital space tourism flights Spacecraft which reentered in 2007 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets