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Soyuz TMA-1 ISS EP-4
Part of ISS
First flight of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft. Belgian astronaut. Mission to swap Soyuz lifeboats docked to station.

AKA: ISS EP-4;ISS-5S;Soyuz TMA-1;Yenisei. Launched: 2002-10-30. Returned: 2002-11-10. Number crew: 3 . Duration: 10.87 days.

Launch delayed from October 22, 28 pending investigation of causes of failure of another Soyuz booster on 15 October. Soyuz-TMA 1 was a Russian automatic passenger craft. It carried the EP-4 visiting crew of three astronauts (two Russians and one Belgian) to automatically dock with the International Space Station (ISS). This was the first flight of the new Soyuz-TMA model. It was to remain parked at the ISS as the escape craft, relieving the Soyuz TM-34. The crew conducted several microgravity experiments on the ISS during their 10-day stay before returning in Soyuz TM-34.

Soyuz TMA-1 docked with the Pirs module at 0501 UTC on November 1. On November 9 the EP-4 crew boarded Soyuz TM-34 and undocked from the Zarya nadir port at 2044 UTC, leaving Soyuz TMA-1 for the resident crew. Soyuz TM-34 landed in Kazakhstan at 0004 UTC on November 10. Following the grounding of the shuttle fleet after the Columbia disaster, Soyuz TMA-1 became the lifeboat for return of the EO-6 crew of Bowersox, Budarin, and Pettit. Following the arrival of the EO-7 skeleton crew to keep the station in operation, the EO-6 crew readied the TMA-1 for landing. They undocked from the ISS at 22:40 GMT on 2 May. This marked the first return of American astronauts in a Soyuz capsule (though several had ridden Soyuz capsules to the Mir station). During the re-entry, the first for the Soyuz TMA-1 model, the guidance failed and the capsule reverted to a rolling ballistic re-entry. This subjected the crew to over 8 G's during re-entry, as opposed to the 3 G's of a normal Soyuz lifting re-entry. It also resulted in a landing 460 km short of the target, and a delay of over two hours before recovery forces arrived at the capsule.


More at: Soyuz TMA-1 ISS EP-4.

Family: Manned spaceflight. People: De Winne, Lonchakov, Zalyotin. Spacecraft: Soyuz TMA.

2002 October 30 - . 03:11 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC1. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-FG.
2002 November 1 - .
2002 November 8 - .
2002 November 9 - .
2002 November 10 - .

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