Soyuz TMA-12M

Soyuz TMA-12M
Soyuz TMA-12M approaches the ISS, 27 March 2014.
Mission typeISS crew transport
OperatorRoscosmos
COSPAR ID2014-013A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.39622
Mission duration169 days, 5 hours, 6 minutes
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 11F732A47 No.712
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TMA 11F747
ManufacturerEnergia
Crew
Crew size3
MembersAleksandr Skvortsov
Oleg Artemyev
Steven R. Swanson
CallsignCliff
Start of mission
Launch date25 March 2014, 21:17:23 (2014-03-25UTC21:17:23Z) UTC[1]
RocketSoyuz-FG
Launch siteBaikonur 1/5, Kazakhstan
End of mission
Landing date11 September 2014, 02:23 (2014-09-11UTC02:24Z) UTC
Landing siteKazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking portPoisk zenith
Docking date27 March 2014
23:53 UTC[2]
Undocking date10 September 2014
23:01 UTC[3]
Time docked166 days, 23 hours, 8 minutes

(l-r) Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)

Soyuz TMA-12M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 39 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-12M was the 121st flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the first in 1967 and the 38th Soyuz mission to the ISS.

After a successful launch on 25 March 2014, docking was scheduled to occur on 26 March via the relatively new six-hour duration orbital trajectory. In the event, one of the orbital burns scheduled to refine the trajectory did not occur as planned, due to an attitude control problem in which the spacecraft was incorrectly oriented.[4] The rendezvous phase was subsequently replanned to the formerly-used two-day trajectory. Accordingly, TMA-12M arrived at the ISS on 27 March.[5][6] The Soyuz remained docked to the ISS to serve as an emergency escape vehicle until undocking and landing as scheduled on 11 September 2014.

  1. ^ "NASA Consolidated Launch Schedule". NASA. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference msc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Station Trio Lands Completing 169 Days in Space". NASA. NASA.gov. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  4. ^ "Soyuz TMA-12M docking delayed following problematic burn". NASAspaceflight.com. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference dockdelay was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference dockdelay2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).