Soyuz TMA-12

Crew

Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov

Status: Retired
4/1/1973 -
Nationality: Russian
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/8/2008
Last Flight: 9/2/2015

Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov is a retired Russian cosmonaut and engineer. He was a member of three missions to the International Space Station, spending more than a year in total in space. During his missions he did four spacewalks lasting more than 23 hours in total. Volkov retired from the Cosmonaut group in February 2017.

Yi So-yeon

Status: Retired
6/2/1978 -
Nationality: South Korean
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/8/2008
Last Flight: 4/8/2008

Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) is an astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space.
Yi was one of the two finalists chosen on December 25, 2006 through the Korean Astronaut Program. On September 5, 2007, the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology chose Ko San, over Yi So-yeon, following performance and other tests during their training in Russia.

On March 7, 2008, she was selected to train with the primary crew, and on March 10 the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that Yi would replace Ko. This was after the Russian Federal Space Agency asked for a replacement, because Ko violated regulations several times at a Russian training center by removing sensitive reading materials and mailing one back to Korea. On April 8, 2008, Yi was launched into space on board Soyuz TMA-12 with two Russian cosmonauts. South Korea is reported to have paid Russia $20 million for Yi's space flight. She is the third woman, after Helen Sharman of the United Kingdom and Anousheh Ansari an Iranian American, to be the first national from their country in space.

Oleg Kononenko

Status: Active
6/21/1964 -
Nationality: Russian
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/8/2008
Last Flight: 12/3/2018

Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (Russian: Олег Дмитриевич Кононенко) is a Russian cosmonaut. He has flown to the International Space Station three times, as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and commander of Expedition 31 aboard Soyuz TMA-03M, and as a flight engineer on Expedition 44 and Expedition 45 aboard Soyuz TMA-17M. Kononenko has accumulated over 533 days in orbit during three long duration flights to ISS.

Rocket

Soyuz FG – Progress Rocket Space Center

• Family: Soyuz-U
• Length: 49.5 m
• Diameter: 3 m
• Launch Mass: 310000 T
• Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 6450 kg

The Soyuz FG was manufactured by Progress Rocket Space Center with the first launch on 2001-05-20. Soyuz FG has 59 successful launches and 1 failed launches with a total of 60 launches. The Soyuz FG rocket is an expendable launch vehicle most commonly known for carrying humans to the International Space Station today.

Agency

Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) – RFSA

• Type: Government
• Abbreviation: RFSA
• Administration: Administrator: Yuri Borisov
• Founded: 1992
• Launchers: Soyuz
• Spacecraft: Soyuz
• Country: RUS

The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of the Russian Federation and general aerospace research. Soyuz has many launch locations the Russian sites are Baikonur, Plesetsk and Vostochny however Ariane also purchases the vehicle and launches it from French Guiana.