Soyuz TMA-15

Crew

Roman Romanenko

Commander

Status: Retired
8/9/1971 -
Nationality: Russian
Type: Government
Agency: Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)

Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force; Russian: Роман Юрьевич Романенко; born August 9, 1971) is a retired cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
Romanenko was selected as a cosmonaut candidate at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Office in December 1997. From January 1998 to November 1999 he undertook his basic training course. In November 1999 he was qualified as a Test Cosmonaut.

He served as the backup to Oleg Kotov as the Commander of Soyuz TMA-10 and Fyodor Yurchikhin as Commander of Expedition 15.

Frank De Winne

Flight Engineer

Status: Retired
4/25/1961 -
Nationality: Belgian
Type: Government
Agency: European Space Agency

Frank, Viscount De Winne (born 25 April 1961, in Ledeberg, Belgium) is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space (after Dirk Frimout). He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission when he served as commander of ISS Expedition 21. ESA astronaut de Winne serves currently as Head of the European Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency in Cologne/Germany (Köln).

Robert Thirsk

Flight Engineer

Status: Retired
8/17/1953 -
Nationality: Canadian
Type: Government
Agency: Canadian Space Agency

Robert Brent Thirsk, OC OBC (born August 17, 1953) is a Canadian engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian records for the longest space flight (187 days 20 hours) and the most time spent in space (204 days 18 hours).

Mission

Soyuz TMA-15

Type: Human Exploration

Soyuz TMA-15 begins Expedition 20 by carrying 3 astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko alongside Flight Engineers, Frank De Winne (ESA) & Robert Thirsk (CSA) will launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then rendezvous with the station. It landed on December 1, 2009, 07:17 UTC

Location

1/5

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

465 launches have been at this location.

Rocket

Soyuz

Length: 49.5 meters
Diameter: 3 meters
First Launched: May 20, 2001

The Soyuz FG rocket is an expendable launch vehicle most commonly known for carrying humans to the International Space Station today.

The Soyuz rocket has been launched a total of 60 times with 59 successful and 1 failed launches.

Agency

Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)

Type: Government
Abbreviation: RFSA
Administration: Administrator: Dmitry Rogozin
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.