Soyouz

Le lanceur russe Soyouz-FG emportant le vaisseau habité Soyouz TMA-18 a décollé vendredi matin vers l'ISS depuis le cosmodrome de Baïkonour au Kazakhstan, a rapporté le correspondant de RIA Novosti.

Le vaisseau Soyouz TMA-18 occupé par les cosmonautes russes Alexandre Skvortsov (commandant de Soyouz, ingénieur et bord et commandant de l'ISS), Mikhaïl Kornienko (ingénieur de bord) et l'astronaute américaine Tracy Caldwell Dyson (ingénieur de bord) devrait s'arrimer à la Station spatiale internationale le 4 avril.

Lors de son séjour à l'ISS, l'équipage recevra trois navettes et trois vaisseaux de transport russes Progress M-05M, et réalisera deux sorties dans l'espace. Le retour du vaisseau Soyouz TMA-18 est fixé au 16 septembre.

A Soyuz spacecraft descended by parachute into remote Kazakhstan late June 1, ending a 163-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS) for the Russian, U.S. and Japanese astronauts on board.
The capsule carrying Oleg Kotov, the station’s former commander, as well as Timothy Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, the station’s U.S. and Japanese flight engineers, descended under clear blue skies to touch down at 11:37 p.m. EDT on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The three men were promptly joined by Russian-led, helicopter-borne search-and-rescue teams who helped them from the spacecraft and provided medical exams.
In live views from NASA TV, the three could be seen seated in recliners eating apples and making cell phone calls. Weather conditions at the landing site were balmy.
“The Soyuz capsule looks to be in great shape, as does the crew,” said NASA spokesman Rob Navias, who accompanied the recovery team. All three astronauts were soon flown to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Later, Kotov was flown by helicopter and Russian transport to Star City, near Moscow.
Creamer and Noguchi were to fly to Houston to reunite with their families late June 2 and begin a physical rehabilitation program to rebuild bones and muscles weakened by more than five months of weightlessness.
During their stay on the ISS, Kotov’s crew greeted three NASA space shuttle crews and built up the scientific research underway on the orbiting laboratory. They assisted with the addition of Russia’s “Rassvet” mini research and docking module, delivered by the shuttle Atlantis last month, and the addition of Tranquility, the last U.S. module, and its cupola observation deck.
The departure of the three men left the station to Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Skvortsov assumed command of the station on May 31.
The Soyuz capsule undocked June 1 at 8:04 p.m. EDT as the station sailed nearly 220 mi. above Mongolia.
Skvortsov’s Expedition 24 crew will be joined later this month by Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin. Their Soyuz is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 15 at 5:35 p.m. EDT and reach the station two days later.

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The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan

Les Soyouz TMA-M (M pour "modernisé") remplaceront les Soyouz-TMA.

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