Mission type ISS crew rotation SATCAT no. 35940 Spacecraft Soyuz No.226 Period 1.5 hours Launch date 30 September 2009 Rocket Soyuz-FG | COSPAR ID 2009-053A Mission duration 168 days Spacecraft type Soyuz-TMA 11F732 Dates 30 Sep 2009 – 18 Mar 2010 Landing date 18 March 2010 | |
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Operator Roscosmos State Corporation Members Maksim Surayev, Jeffrey Williams | ||
The Soyuz TMA-16 (Russian: Союз TMA-16) was a manned flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It transported two members of the Expedition 21 crew 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.
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Guy Laliberté, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, was a spaceflight participant aboard TMA-16 during its flight to the ISS, paying approximately US$35 million for his seat through the American firm Space Adventures. 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 crewmembers.
Expedition 21 soyuz tma 16 launch
Mission highlights
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 Soyuz TMA-14 after approximately 12 days in space while Surayev and Williams landed aboard TMA-16 in Kazakhstan on March 18, 2010.
Space tourism status
Soyuz TMA-16 could have been the final flight of a space tourist to the International Space Station for some time. With the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle and the expansion of the station to six crew members, all Soyuz crew positions for the foreseeable future should be occupied by Expedition crew, until another manned spacecraft such as Orion is available to service the International Space Station.