(RSA Exp. 29 First Space Flight)

(RSA Exp. 29 First Space Flight) Engineer

(NASA Exp.29 - Third Space Flight) Engineer

Backup Crew: Commander: Gennady Padalka, RSA
Sergei Revin, RSA - Flight Engineer
Joseph M. Acaba, NASA - Flight Engineer

Soyuz TMA-22 was a flight to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-22 was the 111th flight of a Soyus spacecraft, and transported three members of the Expedition 29 crew to the ISS. The spacecraft docked to the ISS on 16 November 2011, and remained docked to serve as an emergency escape vehicle until its undocking on 27 April 2012. Soyuz TMA-22 successfully landed in Kazakhstan on 27 April 2012 11:45 GMT.

TMA-22 was the final flight of a Soyuz-TMA vehicle, following the design's replacement by the modernized TMA-M series. The launch of Soyuz TMA-22 was originally scheduled for 30 September 2011, but was delayed until 14 November following the launch failure of the Progress M-12M resupply vehicle on 24 August 2011. Soyuz TMA-22 was the first manned mission to dock with the ISS since the retirement of the American space shuttle fleet at the end of the STS-135 mission in July 2011.

The Soyuz Space Missions

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courtesy: Wikipedia.org
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Expedition 30’s NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are riding on what is the first manned mission since Atlantis’ final NASA mission as STS-135, on a flight which was delayed by one of numerous problems suffered by the Russian space program in 2011.

Atlantis’ mission was instrumental in stockpiling nearly a year’s worth of supplies for the ISS, which proved to be essential after the the failure of the Progress M-12M/44P mission on August 28, 2011.

While the logistical situation wasn’t an immediate concern, the commonality between the Progress and Soyuz TMA launch hardware – specifically the Upper Stage – effectively grounded both vehicles.

This led to contingency discussions surrounding the potential need to de-crew the ISS.

A Russian commission quickly determined the cause of the failure to be a blocked fuel line leading to the gas generator in the Soyuz-U third stage’s RD-0110 engine. The blocked fuel line caused a loss of pressure in the gas generator, which in turn caused a shutdown of the RD-0110 engine’s turbopump, leading to a total loss of thrust.

While the blocked fuel line was attributed to a random, one-off event caused by human error in vehicle processing, all Soyuz third stages were ordered to be sent back to their assembly plant for thorough testing. With the tests confirming that the previous defect was indeed a one-off, Russia cleared the Soyuz booster for resumption of flights.

In order to prevent a re-occurrence of the defect, numerous new safety measures were implemented, including video cameras to record all stages of Soyuz booster assembly.

With the successful launch of the Progress M-13M/45P to the ISS at the end of October, confidence was restored in the fleet, allowing for managers to proceed towards the launch of the manned mission via Soyuz TMA-22 – which is the last of the anolog Soyuz vehicles, as much as the new digital version of the spacecraft has already flown.

ITAR-TASS: BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN. NOVEMBER 14. 2011. The Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-22 capsule being transported to the launch pad of Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome. (Photo ITAR-TASS/ Oleg Urusov)

Soyuz on the Launch Pad The Soyuz TMA-22 rocket is seen on the launch pad during a snow storm the morning of the launch of Expedition 29 to the International Space Station at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Russian support personnel work to help get crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed with Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank, and Flight Engineers Anton Skhaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin April 27, 201 in a remote area outside of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.