Soyuz TMA-15 was a crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station. Part of the Soyuz programme, it transported three members of the Expedition 20 crew to the space station. TMA-15 was the 102nd crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, since Soyuz 1 in 1967. The Soyuz spacecraft remained docked to the space station during Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 as an emergency escape vehicle. The mission marked the start of six-person crew operations on the ISS.
| Mission type | ISS crew rotation |
|---|---|
| Operator | Roskosmos |
| COSPAR ID | 2009-030A  |
| SATCAT no. | 35010 |
| Mission duration | 6 months and 4 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Soyuz-TMA 11F732 |
| Manufacturer | RKK Energia |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | Roman Romanenko Frank De Winne Robert Brent Thirsk |
| Callsign | Таймыр (Taymyr)[1]or Парус (Parus, meaning Sail)[1] |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 27 May 2009, 10:34:53 (2009-05-27UTC10:34:53Z) UTC[2][3] |
| Rocket | Soyuz-FG |
| Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 1 December 2009, 07:17 (2009-12-01UTC07:18Z) UTC[4] |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 151 kilometres (94 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 414 kilometres (257 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Period | 90.16 minutes |
| Epoch | 28 May 2009[5] |
| Docking with ISS | |
| Docking port | Zarya nadir |
| Docking date | 29 May 2009 12:34 UTC |
| Undocking date | 1 December 2009 03:56 UTC[6] |
| Time docked | 185 d 15 h 22 m |
 From left to right; Thirsk, Romanenko and De Winne
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions) | |
| Position[7][8] | Crew Member | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander |  Roman RomanenkoExpedition 20 First spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 1 |  Frank De Winne, ESAExpedition 20 Second and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 2 |  Robert Thirsk, CSAExpedition 20 Second and last spaceflight | |
| Position | Cosmonaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Dmitrij Kondratiyev
| |
| Flight Engineer 1 |  André Kuipers, ESA
| |
| Flight Engineer 2 | Chris Hadfield, CSA
| |
Soyuz TMA-15 was launched successfully by a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur CosmodromeinKazakhstan, at 10:34 UTC on 27 May 2009. It docked with the ISS at 12:34 UTC on 29 May 2009.
Roman Romanenko was the third second-generation space traveller. He was reported to have chosen Taymyr (Russian: Таймыр) as the mission callsign because it was the callsign on his father's first flight, Soyuz 26;[1] however, the callsign Parus (Russian: Парус meaning Sail) was used for communications with the spacecraft.[1] Robert Thirsk became the first Canadian to fly on a Soyuz; all previous Canadians in space had flown aboard Space Shuttles. Frank De Winne became the first European to be in command of the ISS.
The craft and crew returned to earth 1 December 2009.
