News

May 28, 2014
Soyuz TMA-13M launched to the International Space Station! The crew onboard the spacecraft consists of: M. Surayev, G. Wiseman, A. Gerst

In accordance with the mission plan of the International Space Station (ISS) and Russian commitments under this international project, a manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-13M was launched from Baikonur launch site at 23:57:40 Moscow Time.

The objective of the launch is to deliver to ISS a crew of three in order bring the crew of Expedition Forty (ISS-40) up to six.

The crew of Soyuz TMA-13M consists of: Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev (spacecraft commander), US astronaut Gregory Wiseman (spacecraft flight-1 engineer) and European astronaut Alexander Gerst (flight engineer-2 of the spacecraft).

The spacecraft was put into a parking low-Earth orbit with the following parameters: 51.65њ inclination , 200.68 km minimal altitude, 243.37 km maximum altitude, 88.6 minutes orbital period.

The onboard systems of the spacecraft operate normally.

At the launch site, the spacecraft prelaunch processing and launch were performed under the direction of the State Commission (chaired by the head of Roscosmos O.N. Ostapenko). The Commission was basing its decisions to proceed with each next step in processing and launching on the final report of the Technical Management headed by the President of RSC Energia, Designer General V.A. Lopota.

According to the telemetry data and reports from the crew of ISS, the space station systems operate normally. The station is ready for docking with the spacecraft.

 

For reference:

1. RSC Energia is the prime manned space flight organization in the Russian rocket and space industry, responsible for the development of the ISS Russian Segment (RS), its integration into the Space Station and its operation, including development and operation of the principal modules of the Segment (Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk, Rassvet, etc.), manufacturing, launch and operation of Soyuz TMA and Progress M spacecraft.
2. Currently working onboard ISS is the crew of ISS-40 consisting of: Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and US astronaut Steven Swanson.
3. The mission plan for Soyuz TMA-13M calls for the spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with the ISS using a quick rendezvous profile after its orbital insertion. The docking of Soyuz TMA-13M with the docking port of the Mini Research Module Rassvet (MRM1) of the ISS RS is scheduled for May 29, 2014 at 05:48 Moscow Time, 6 hours after the launch. Against the possibility of contingencies occurring during rendezvous using this profile, methods have been developed for safely switching to the two-day rendezvous profile.