Soyuz TMA-7 (Russian: Союз ТМА-7) was a transport mission for portions of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 12 crew launched October 1, 2005. The flight delivered ISS Commander William AcArthur and ISS Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev to the station to replace Epedition 11 crew members. Spaceflight Participant Gregory Olsen joined the TMA-7 crew for the ascent and docking with the ISS, spent approximately eight days aboard conducting experiments, then returned to Earth with the outgoing members of Expedition 11 aboard Soyuz TMA-6. McArthur and Tokarev were joined on their return trip to Earth by Flight Engineer Marcos Pontes who launched aboard Soyuz TMA-S and spent approximately seven days aboard the ISS conducting experiments for the Brazilian Space Agency.

The first EVA was performed by William McArthur and Valeri Tokarev on November 07, 2005 (5h 22m) to install a television camera on the station's part truss, needed for future assembly work, to remove the 5 year old FPP experiment (Floating Potential Probe) from the top of the P6 truss and to remove and replace other equipment.

On 18.11.2005 the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft was relocated from the Pirs docking port to the Nadir Docking port of the Zarya module. That was necessary to start the second EVA from out the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.

Progress M-55 was launched at 18:38:20 UTC on December 21, 2005. The spacecraft docked with the Pirs module at 19:46:18 UTC on December 23, 2005. Progress M-55 carried supplies to the International Space Station, including food, water and oxygen for the crew and equipment for conducting scientific research. The freighter remained docked for almost six months before undocking at 14:06:01 UTC on June 19, 2006 to make way for Progress M-57. It was deorbited at 17:06:01 UTC on June 19, 2006. The spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, with any remaining debris landing in the ocean at around 17:53:14 UTC.

The second and final EVA by William McArthur and Valeri Tokarev occurred on February 03, 2006 (5h 43m) to deploy SuitSat, an unneeded Russian spacesuit with an amateur radio transmitter. The SuitSat provided recorded greetings in six languages to ham radio operators for about two orbits of the Earth before it stopped transmitting, perhaps due to its batteries failing in the cold environment of space. They then removed a grapple fixture adapter for the Strela crane to the PMA-3 on the Unity module. Then they tried to securely install a safety bolt in a contingency cutting device for one of two cables that provide power, data and video to the Mobile Transporter rail car, but this failed. Finally, they retrieved an experiment to study the effect of the space environment on microorganisms from the Russian Pirs airlock and photographed the exterior of Zvezda.

On March 20, 2006 the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft was relocated again, now from the Zarya module to the Zvezda port. Additional work during this mission included different research programs as Foot-Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight experiment (FOOT), Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope for the International Space Station (PROMISS-4), Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, but also “housekeeping”, repairing work, unload and reload of Progress freighters and more.

On March 29, 2006 a total solar eclipse took place, and pictures were taken by the Expedition 12 crew. They clearly showed the shadow of the Moon being cast on the Earth.