Soyuz MS-16

Last updated

Soyuz MS-16
Expedition 63 docks.jpg
Irkut approaches the ISS
Mission typeCrewed mission to ISS
Operator Roscosmos
COSPAR ID 2020-023A
SATCAT no. 45465
Mission duration195 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft Soyuz MS No.745 Irkut [1] [2]
Manufacturer RSC Energia
Launch mass7,280 kg (16,050 lb)
Crew
Members
Start of mission
Launch date9 April 2020, 08:05:06 UTC [3]
Rocket Soyuz-2.1a (B15000-042) [1]
Launch site Baikonur Site 31
Contractor RSC Progress
End of mission
Landing date22 October 2020, 02:54:12 UTC [4]
Landing site Kazakh Steppe, 150 km (93 mi) southeast of Zhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric orbit [5]
Regime Low Earth orbit
Inclination 51.66°
Docking with ISS
Docking port Poisk zenith
Docking date9 April 2020, 14:13:18 UTC [5]
Undocking date21 October 2020, 23:31:41 UTC [5]
Time docked195 days, 9 hours and 18 minutes
Expedition 63 Preflight (JSC2020-E-017082).jpg
Cassidy, Ivanishin, Vagner 

Soyuz MS-16 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 9 April 2020, [3] which transported three members of the Expedition 62/63 crew to the International Space Station. [6]

Contents

This flight was the first crewed launch using the Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle, and the first crewed Russian mission not to launch from Gagarin's Start (which began modernization renovations after Soyuz MS-15) since Soyuz MS-02 in 2016. [7]

Crew

Position Crew member
Commander Flag of Russia.svg Anatoli Ivanishin, Roscosmos
Expedition 62/63
Third and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Flag of Russia.svg Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos
Expedition 62/63
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 Flag of the United States.svg Christopher Cassidy, NASA
Expedition 62/63
Third and last spaceflight

Backup crew

Position Crew member [5]
Commander Flag of Russia.svg Sergey Ryzhikov, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1 Flag of Russia.svg Andrei Babkin, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 2 Flag of the United States.svg Stephen Bowen, NASA

Crew notes

This flight would have marked the first spaceflight for rookie cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov, who has been removed from several ISS flights due to delays to the Russian Nauka laboratory module starting with Soyuz MS-04. Tikhonov and Babkin were replaced by their backups, Ivanishin and Vagner, for medical reasons. [8] Tikhonov, the original Soyuz commander, suffered an eye injury, and Russian officials opted to swap both Russian crew members with the back-up crew. [9]

Tikhonov and Babkin were expected to fly on Soyuz MS-17, scheduled for October 2020 when Tikhonov's eye injury was set to have had healed, although the two were not assigned to this mission. Tikhonov has since retired from roscosmos, [10] while Babkin remains an active cosmonaut, but he has not yet been assigned to a future spaceflight.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the crew's families and media representatives could not watch the launch in Baikonur, and the usual pre-launch traditions dating back to Yuri Gagarin's flight on Vostok 1 were canceled. [9]

Mission

Soyuz MS-16 was launched on 9 April 2020 at 08:05:06 UTC. The Soyuz 2.1a booster's first and core stage engines ignited on time and lifted the rocket away from its firing stand at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, with cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin, joined by the rookie Ivan Vagner on the left and astronaut Chris Cassidy on the right. Like Ivanishin, Cassidy is making his third space flight. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted congratulations: "Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner are safely in orbit, no virus is stronger than the human desire to explore. I'm grateful to the entire @NASA and @roscosmos teams for their dedication to making this launch a success".

The International Space Station passed directly over the launch site about three minutes before the launch and the booster climbed directly into the plane of its orbit. Six orbits after that, at 14:13:18 UTC, the Soyuz docked at the Poisk docking compartment. [11]

Return

The Soyuz capsule undocked from the International Space Station at approximately 23:32:00 UTC and landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 02:54:12 UTC. [4] [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

Sergey Ryzhikov (cosmonaut) Russian cosmonaut and military officer

Sergey Nikolayevich Ryzhikov, lieutenant colonel of Russian Air Force, is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He is a veteran of two long duration space flights to the ISS.

Aleksey Ovchinin Russian Air Force Major and cosmonaut (born 1971)

Aleksey Nikolayevich Ovchinin is a Russian Air Force Major and cosmonaut, who was selected in 2006. Ovchinin made his first spaceflight in 2016, and was assigned as Commander of Soyuz MS-10 in 2018.

Anton Shkaplerov Russian cosmonaut

Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov is a Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights.

Andrey Borisenko Russian cosmonaut

Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko is a Russian cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmonaut in May 2003, and is a veteran of two long duration missions to the International Space Station.

Anatoly Ivanishin Russian cosmonaut (born 1969)

Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft as an Expedition 29 / Expedition 30 crew member, launching in November 2011 and returning in April 2012. Ivanishin was the Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 49.

Andrew R. Morgan American astronaut

Andrew Richard "Drew" Morgan is a NASA astronaut from the class of 2013.

Soyuz MS-10 2018 aborted Russian crewed spaceflight

Soyuz MS-10 was a crewed Soyuz MS spaceflight that aborted shortly after launch on 11 October 2018 due to a failure of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle boosters. MS-10 was the 139th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. It was intended to transport two members of the Expedition 57 crew to the International Space Station. A few minutes after liftoff, the craft went into contingency abort due to a booster failure and had to return to Earth. By the time the contingency abort was declared, the launch escape system (LES) tower had already been ejected and the capsule was pulled away from the rocket using the solid rocket jettison motors on the capsule fairing. Both crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, were recovered in good health. The MS-10 flight abort was the first instance of a Russian crewed booster accident in 35 years, since Soyuz T-10-1 exploded on the launch pad in September 1983. On 1 November 2018, Russian scientists released a video recording of the mission.

Soyuz MS-17 2020 Russian crewed spaceflight to the ISS

Soyuz MS-17 was a Soyuz spaceflight that was launched on 14 October 2020. It transported three crew members of the Expedition 63/64 crew to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-17 was the 145th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander and a Russian and American flight engineer.

Expedition 57

Expedition 57 was the 57th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on October 4, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-08.

Expedition 58

Expedition 58 was the 58th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on December 20, 2018 with the departure of the Expedition 57 crew. It was commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, with astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques as flight engineers; the trio launched on board Soyuz MS-11 on December 3, 2018, marking the 100th orbital launch of the year.

Andrei Babkin Russian engineer and cosmonaut

Andrei Nikolaevich Babkin is a Russian Engineer and Cosmonaut who was selected in April 2010. He was scheduled to make his first flight into space in April 2020 onboard Soyuz MS-16, although in February 2020 he and Nikolai Tikhonov were removed from the flight due to medical reasons.

Expedition 63 Long-duration mission to the International Space Station

Expedition 63 was the 63rd long duration mission to the International Space Station, which began on 17 April 2020 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft and continued until the undocking of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft on 21 October 2020, an unusual double-length expedition increment. The Expedition initially consisted of American commander Chris Cassidy, as well as Russian flight engineers Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. On 31 May 2020, the Expedition welcomed the crew of Crew Dragon Demo-2, the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour after the eponymous Space Shuttle vehicle. The mission's two crew members Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken undocked from the International Space Station on 1 August 2020, to help bolster research on the station and participate in several spacewalks outside of the station.

Expedition 62 62nd long duration mission to the ISS

Expedition 62 was the 62nd long duration mission to the International Space Station, which began 5:50 UTC on 6 February 2020 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft. The Expedition consisted of Russian commander Oleg Skripochka, as well as American flight engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan. The second part of Expedition 62 was made up of the three crew members from Soyuz MS-16.

Ivan Vagner Cosmonaut

Ivan Viktorovich Vagner is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut who was selected in October 2010. He graduated from the Baltic State Technical University in 2008, before working as an engineer for RKK Energia.

Soyuz MS-18 2021 Russian crewed spaceflight to the ISS

Soyuz MS-18 was a Soyuz spaceflight that was launched on 9 April 2021 at 07:42:41 UTC. It transported three members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-18 was the 146th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of a Russian commander, a Russian flight engineer, and an American flight engineer of NASA. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 17 October 2021 following 191 days in space. The flight served as the landing vehicle for the Russian film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild who launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-19 and spent twelve days in space in order to film a movie, Vyzov.

Sergey Kud-Sverchkov Russian engineer and cosmonaut

Sergey Vladimirovich Kud-Sverchkov is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2010 by Roscosmos. He made his first spaceflight in 2020 aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for ISS Expedition 63/64.

Soyuz MS-20 2021 Russian crewed spaceflight to the ISS

Soyuz MS-20 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 8 December 2021. Unlike previous Soyuz flights to the ISS, Soyuz MS-20 did not deliver any crew members for an ISS Expedition or serve as a lifeboat for any crew members on board the station. Instead, it was commanded by a single professional cosmonaut on board, and carried two space tourists represented by space tourism company Space Adventures, which had already successfully planned and executed eight space tourism missions to the ISS. The flight to reach the ISS took six hours.

Soyuz MS-19 2021 Russian crewed spaceflight to the ISS

Soyuz MS-19 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 5 October 2021, at 08:55:02 UTC. It was the 147th flight of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, Russian film director Klim Shipenko and Russian actress Yulia Peresild. Shipenko and Peresild spent about twelve days on the International Space Station before returning to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-18, while filming a movie in space, Vyzov. The MS-18 flight launched two crew members of the Expedition 66. Without an American astronaut, this launch marked the first time in more than 21 years that a Soyuz crew only included Russian cosmonauts and travelers and the ship had to be upgraded to be piloted by a single person at launch. This is also the first mission to the ISS with an entirely Russian crew.

References

  1. 1 2 Navin, Joseph (4 March 2020). "Preparations continue amid crew shuffle for Soyuz MS-16". NASASpaceFlight. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020. The Soyuz 2.1a built specifically for the Soyuz MS-16 mission is B15000-042 (V15000-042) [...] The serial number for the specific Soyuz spacecraft that is going to be flown on MS-16 is No.745.
  2. Gebhardt, Chris (8 April 2020). "Russia conducts first Soyuz 2.1a human launch; MS-16 crew arrives at Station". NASASpaceFlight. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020. Soyuz will use the call sign "Irkut" for this mission, after the river Commander Ivanishin's home city is named after
  3. 1 2 "Утвержден экипаж космического корабля "Союз МС-16"" [The crew of MS-16 Soyuz spacecraft has been approved] (in Russian). Interfax. 27 June 2019. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 Clark, Stephen (21 October 2020). "Live coverage: Soyuz crew returns to Earth". Spaceflight Now. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Becker, Joachim (20 February 2020). "Soyuz MS-16". spacefacts.de. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  6. Becker, Joachim (20 February 2020). "ISS: Expedition 62". spacefacts.de. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  7. Becker, Joachim (20 April 2018). "Soyuz MS-02". spacefacts.de. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  8. Clark, Stephen (19 February 2020). "Russian space agency replaces cosmonauts on next space station crew". Spaceflight Now. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  9. 1 2 Clark, Stephen (20 March 2020). "Astronaut's family won't attend launch next month due to coronavirus threat". Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  10. "Cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov leaves Roscomos - collectSPACE: Messages". www.collectspace.com. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  11. Clark, Stephen (10 April 2020). "Soyuz crew docks with International Space Station". SpaceflightNow. Archived from the original on 25 May 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  12. Space com Staff 21 (22 October 2020). "Watch live tonight: Soyuz capsule to return ISS crew to Earth". space.com. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  13. Neal, Mihir; Gebhardt, Chris (21 October 2020). "Soyuz MS-16 returns Space Station trio to Earth". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.