(RKA Expo-1 Second Space Flight)

(RKA Expo-1 Fifth Space Flight Engineer)

(NASA Expo-1 Fourth Space Flight Engineer)

(RKA ISS EP-1 Third Space Flight)

(RKA ISS EP-1 First Space Flight) Tourist:

(RKA ISS EP-1 Second Space Flight Engineer)

Backup Crew: Commander: Nil

Soyuz TM-31 was the first Soyuz spacecraft to dock with the International space station (ISS). Launched near the end of 2000 the Soyuz TM spacecraft brought to ISS Expedition 1, the first long-duration ISS crew. It was launched from Russia at 07:52 UT on October 31, 2000 by a Soyuz-U rocket.

The Soyuz Space Missions

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Designed by Nigel G Wilcox

Pages within this section: Soyuz (FF)

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courtesy: Wikipedia.org
spacefacts.de

The crew consisted of Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and sergei Krikalev, and American William Shepherd. Gidzenko was Commander of the flight up, but once aboard the station, Shepherd became Commander of the long-duration mission Expedition 1.

The spacecraft served as the crew's lifeboat while docked to the ISS. The Expedition 1 crew were returned to Earth via a Space Shuttle during STS-102 in March 2001, and the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft stayed with the station for part of xpedition. In April 2001 another spacecraft, Soyuz TM-32, arrived at the station, and took over responsibilities as the station's lifeboat. The crew launched by Soyuz TM-32, which included the first paying space tourist Dennis Tito, were returned to Earth in May aboard Soyuz TM-31. The visiting mission of which Tito was apart is sometimes referred to as ISS-EP-1.

Soyuz TM-31 is transported to the Launch Pad at the Baikonur complex, 29 October 2000