Soyuz TMA-11

Soyuz TMA -11 mission is the designation for the flight of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). As part of the ISS program, the flight is called ISS AF -15S. It was the 15th visit of a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS, and the 121st flight in Sojusprogramm.

Crew

Start crew

  • Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (4th space flight), Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Peggy Whitson ( second space flight ), aircraft engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor ( first space flight ), science spaceman ( Angkasa / Malaysia)

Backup crew

  • Salis Chan Schakirowitsch Sharipov, Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Edward Fincke, Flight Engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Faiz Khaleed, science spaceman ( Angkasa / Malaysia)

Return crew

  • Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (4th space flight), Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Peggy Whitson ( second space flight ), aircraft engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Yi So-yeon ( first space flight), Forschungskosmonautin ( KARI / South Korea)

Mission overview

This mission brought on 10 October 2007, the 16 long-term crew to the International Space Station, replacing the Soyuz TMA -10 as a rescue vehicle. Furthermore, the work on this mission with Sheikh Shukor Muszaphar for the first time a Malaysian astronaut into space.

After half a year of work in space returned ISS Commander Whitson and Flight Engineer Malenchenko 19 April 2008 together with the first South Korean spaceflight participant Yi returned to Earth. After an unscheduled ballistic return with peak load of 8.6 times gravity Malenchenko reported via satellite phone probably retained landing. A short time later, the capsule about 420 km to the west are located and excavated the targeted landing site at 50 ° 31'N and 61 ° 07'O. During reentry communication was initially greatly disturbed about radio and then broke completely.

According to NASA information on re-entry had irregularities on the removal of the drive module. Due to the scorch marks on the capsule suspicions were voiced that the capsule during re-entry into the atmosphere, at least temporarily flew with the hatch above, so that the heat shield was ineffective. Heavy fire damage to the antenna can be seen as a cause for the termination of the radio communication during re-entry.

Control problems were already encountered in the Soyuz TMA-1 and Soyuz TMA -10, leading to ballistic landings. When TMA -1 was a device error, a faulty cable as well as problems in the separation of land and drive module determines at TMA -10 as the cause.

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