Soyuz TMA-16

Soyuz TMA-16
Mission typeISS crew rotation
OperatorRoscosmos
COSPAR ID2009-053A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.35940
Mission duration168 days
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz No.226
Spacecraft typeSoyuz-TMA 11F732
ManufacturerEnergia
Crew
Crew size3 up
2 down
MembersMaksim Surayev
Jeffrey Williams
LaunchingGuy Laliberté
Start of mission
Launch dateSeptember 30, 2009, 07:14:45 (2009-09-30UTC07:14:45Z) UTC[1][2]
RocketSoyuz-FG
Launch siteBaikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing dateMarch 18, 2010, 11:24 (2010-03-18UTC11:25Z) UTC[1]
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude340 kilometres (210 mi)
Apogee altitude351 kilometres (218 mi)
Inclination51.6 degrees
Period91.44 minutes
EpochOctober 7, 2009[3]
Docking with ISS
Docking portZvezda aft
Docking date2 October 2009
08:35 UTC
Undocking date21 January 2010
10:03 UTC
Time docked111d 1h 28m
Docking with ISS
(Relocation)
Docking portPoisk zenith
Docking date21 January 2010
10:24 UTC
Undocking date18 March 2010
08:03 UTC
Time docked55d 21h 39m

From left to right: Laliberté, Williams and Surayev
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)

The Soyuz TMA-16 (Russian: Союз TMA-16) was a crewed flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It transported two members of the Expedition 21 crew[1] and a Canadian entrepreneur from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ISS. TMA-16 was the 103rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, 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, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, was a Space tourist aboard TMA-16 during its flight to the ISS, paying approximately US$35 million for his seat through the American firm Space Adventures.[4] He returned on board the Soyuz TMA-14 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.

  1. ^ a b c NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine - NASA press release - 08-306 - Nov. 21, 2008
  2. ^ NASA. "Consolidated Launch Manifest". NASA. Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  3. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference canada was invoked but never defined (see the help page).