Updates Soyuz-TMA-21 "Yuri Gagarin" Updates

[diogom]

[

Soyuz TMA-21 lifts-off on April 4, at 22:18:20 UTC (April 5, 01:18:20 MSK). It will be devoted to the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, and will thus carry several additional patches.

Crew:

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Samokutyayev (Commander)
Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko (Flight Engineer)
Ronald John Jr. Garan (Flight Engineer)

Backup crew:

Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (Commander)
Anatoliy Alekseevich Ivanishin (Flight Engineer)
Daniel Burbank (Flight Engineer)

The Soyuz will dock to the Poisk module (Zvezda nadir) on the 7th, and will remain docked to serve as an escape pod, in the event of an emergency.

 

[diogom]

A couple of pics of the Soyuz in processing. From RSC Energia website.

 

[orb]

Here's calendar event for the launch, and here you can request a reminder for it.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

I love the Gagarin logo on the BO!

Let's hope this Soyuz gets to do a flyabout of ISS/Shuttle. :thumbup:

 

[C3PO]

I love the Gagarin logo on the BO!

Let's hope this Soyuz gets to do a flyabout of ISS/Shuttle. :thumbup:

That would be really cool!
:10sign: ---Me--->:11sign:

 

[IronRain]

 

[diogom]

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss27/photo_03-31.html

The prime and backup crews made a check inspection of the spacecraft in the launch configuration and got acquainted with equipment to be delivered and returned to the ground.

 

[diogom]

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss27/photo_04-01.html

Processing of the rocket continues.

 

[Scruce]

The last flight was a Soyuz TMAM (Soyuz TMA-01M) flight. Why has it gone back to a Soyuz TMA (Soyuz TMA-21) instead of Soyuz TMA-02M?

 

[N_Molson]

I wonder too. I guess there was one TMA in stock ?

 

[diogom]

The TMA-M isn't operational yet, it's still on the testing phase. -01M and -02M serve as flight development tests, and -03M will be used for qualification tests. From -04M on, the TMA will stop flying, and the M version will be always used.

 

[Scruce]

The TMA-M isn't operational yet, it's still on the testing phase. -01M and -02M serve as flight development tests, and -03M will be used for qualification tests. From -04M on, the TMA will stop flying, and the M version will be always used.

Good call :tiphat:.

 

[diogom]

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss27/photo_04-02.html

The rocket has been moved to the pad. As with every RSC news, nice pics on the link above.

 

[orb]

The last flight was a Soyuz TMAM (Soyuz TMA-01M) flight.

The last flight was Soyuz TMA-20. The TMA-01M was before it.

 

[diogom]

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss27/photo_04-01_2.html

And on April 1st, a "...meeting of the Technical management under the chairmanship of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia President and General Designer V.A. Lopota and State commission was held. A decision on rollout of the launch vehicle with the Soyuz TMA-21 transport manned spacecraft to the launch facility and its preparation for launch planned for April 5, 2011 was adopted."

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------

Crew seating arrangement.
Taken from http://www.spacefacts.de/english/flights.htm

 

[orb]

NASA: NASA To Broadcast Soyuz Events And Launch In High Definition:

{...}

The schedule includes (all times Central [UTC times added in square brackets /orb]):

{...}

Sunday, April 3
4 p.m. [21:00 UTC] - Video File of the Russian State Commission meeting and final pre-launch crew news conference in Baikonur

Monday, April 4
3:45 p.m. [20:45 UTC] - Video File of the crew pre-launch activities in Baikonur
4:30 p.m. [21:30 UTC] - Launch coverage (launch scheduled at 5:18 p.m.) from Baikonur
8 p.m. [01:00 UTC on Tuesday, April 5] - Video File of pre-launch, launch and post-launch interviews

{...}

 

[diogom]

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11598&lang=eng

Mission control center of Moscow is ready to control the mission of the Soyuz TMA-21 crew vehicle.

---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 PM ----------

 

[N_Molson]

Spaceflight Now :

Next space station crew set for launch Monday

Rolling out to Yuri Gagarin's launch pad as the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight nears, the next Soyuz rocket is poised for launch carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-21 capsule and its three-stage booster traveled horizontally by railcar, journeying along a winding route from the integration facility at Site 254 to the same historic pad used since the dawn of the space age at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Hydraulic pistons lifted the rocket upright on the pad and gantry swing arms moved into position to enclose the vehicle. Technicians on four levels hooked up electrical and telemetry cables between the rocket and pad.

Ron Garan, Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev will ride the rocket into orbit for a half-year mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, launching Monday at 6:18 p.m. EDT (2218 GMT). They are headed for a Wednesday arrival at the space station with docking around 7:18 p.m. EDT (2318 GMT).

Soyuz TMA-21 crew of Ron Garan (USA), Alexander Samokutyaev (RU) and Andrey Borisenko (RU).

 

[orb]

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11598

Mission control center of Moscow is ready to control the mission of the Soyuz TMA-21 crew vehicle.

FTFY:
http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11598[highlight]&lang=en[/highlight]

May I suggest adding the language part to Roscosmos URLs (lang=[en|ru]), like in the example above? The default language for the site is Russian (with no cookies set), and some people may have Russian language set in the cookies for it too (like me if I last time browsed it in Russian, SiberianTiger), and Russian news with the same "nid" are different than English (for example, this one was from July 7, 2010).

 

[diogom]

Corrected, thanks. :thumbup: