The Soyuz TMA-16 () was a crewed flight 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). It transported two members of the

Expedition 21 Expedition 21 was the 21st long-duration mission to the International Space Station ( ISS). The expedition began on 11 October 2009, with Frank de Winne becoming the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission. The handover between Expedit ...

crew and a Canadian entrepreneur 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 ...

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 ...

to the ISS. TMA-16 was the 103rd flight of a

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

, the first flight launching in 1967. The launch of Soyuz TMA-16 marked the first time since 1969 that three Soyuz craft were in orbit simultaneously.

Guy Laliberté Guy Laliberté, (born 2 September 1959) is a Canadian billionaire businessman and poker player. Along with Gilles Ste-Croix, he is the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, which was founded in 1984. The Canadian circus company's shows have since be ...

, founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...

, was a

Space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

aboard TMA-16 during its flight to the ISS, paying approximately for his seat through the American firm

Space Adventures Space Adventures, Inc. is an American space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. Its offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights (with the option to participate in a spacewalk), and other spacefl ...

. He returned on board the

Soyuz TMA-14 The Soyuz TMA-14 (, ''Union TMA-14'') was a Soyuz programme, Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi ...

spacecraft left as an emergency vehicle during that previous flight. The Soyuz TMA-16 flight spacecraft flew back to Earth with only two crew members.

Crew

Backup Crew

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-16 relocates from Zvezda Service Module to Poisk module

Soyuz TMA-16 was docked to the ISS at the aft port of the ''Zvezda'' module. On January 21, 2010, cosmonaut Suraev and Expedition 22 Commander Jeffrey Williams relocated the spacecraft to the zenith-facing port of the ''Poisk'' module. The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft undocked from the aft end of the ''Zvezda'' service module at 5:03 a.m. EST and backed away to a distance of about 100 feet from the space station. Undocking occurred as the station flew about 213 miles high off the southwest coast of Africa. Re-docking occurred at 5:24 a.m. EST after Suraev fired the ''Soyuz'' maneuvering thrusters to fly halfway around the orbiting space station and line up with the ''Poisk'' module. Spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté landed aboard

after approximately 12 days in space while Surayev and Williams landed aboard TMA-16 in

on March 18, 2010.

Space tourism status

Soyuz TMA-16 was the final flight of a

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

to the International Space Station for more than a decade. With the imminent retirement of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

and the expansion of the station to six crew members, all Soyuz crew positions for the foreseeable future were to be occupied by Expedition crew until another crewed spacecraft such as

Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which cons ...

or Starliner was available to service the International Space Station.

References

External links

Soyuz TMA-16 trackingGuy Laliberté in training

Soyuz TMA-16 pictures
{{Orbital launches in 2009 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2009 Orbital space tourism flights Spacecraft which reentered in 2010 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets