Soyuz TMA-2 was a

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

(Russian Союз ТМА-2, ''Union TMA-2'') mission to 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) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 28, 2003 and undocked on October 28, 2003. Soyuz TMA-2 was the second flight for the ''TMA'' modification of the

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 ...

, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS. The commander was Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (Russia), and the flight engineer was Edward Tsang Lu (USA). After docking with the ISS they exchanged with the resident crew on ISS and became the seventh station crew, called "ISS Expedition Seven". Alexander Kaleri and

Michael Foale Colin Michael Foale (; born 6 January 1957) is a British-American astrophysicist and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the Internat ...

were assigned as the backup crew.

Crew

Original Crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: 7136 kg *Perigee: 200 km *Apogee: 250 km *Inclination: 51.7° *Period: 88.7 min

Docking with ISS

*Docked to ISS: April 28, 2003, 05:56 UTC (to nadir port of Zarya) *Undocked from ISS: October 27, 2003, 23:17 UTC (from nadir port of Zarya)

Mission highlights

Originally the Soyuz missions to the ISS were all planned to be only taxi mission to deliver a new Soyuz spacecraft as the station's lifeboat every six month with a visiting crew, but not for crew exchange. Until the

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster On Saturday, February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated as it Atmospheric entry, re-entered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the second List of Spa ...

, the same was planned for Soyuz TMA-2, a visiting crew consisting of commander Gennady Padalka and ESA-astronaut

Pedro Duque Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, Order of Friendship, OF, Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration", OMSE (born Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer who served as Ministry of Science (Spain), minister of Science from ...

were to spend about one week at the station and then return with the previous Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft. The third seat might have gone to the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an Klaus von Storch as a Chilean space agency (Agencia Chilena del Espacio) cosmonaut, but even before the Columbia disaster, it looked like his flight would not happen, and the seat would go to the Russian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Oleg Kotov or to deliver freight to the station. During his stay on the station, Malenchenko became the first person to get married in space. His bride was in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

where long distance marriages are legal. The spacecraft returned to Earth on October 28, with both the "Expedition 7" crew as well as

on board. Duque was launched with Soyuz TMA-3 and spent only one week on board of the ISS.

References

External links

RussianSpaceWeb.com: ''Soyuz TMA-2''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz TMA-02 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2003 Spacecraft which reentered in 2003 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-FG rockets