Soyuz TMA-08M (Russian: Союз ТМА-08M meaning Union TMA-08M), identified as Soyuz 34 or 34S by NASA, was a 2013 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 35 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-08M was the 117th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-08M utilized the new 6-hour fast rendezvous flight profile developed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) and previously tested on Progress M-16M and M-17M, instead of the usual two-day rendezvous, making it possible for crew members to leave ground facilities and board the International Space Station in less time than a typical transatlantic flight.

Expedition 36 would officially start with the departure of Chris Hadfield, Roman Romanenko and Tom Marshburn onboard Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft on May 14, 2013, leaving the crew of Soyuz TMA-08M onboard the station. These three crew members will be joined by Karen Nyberg, Fedor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano following their launch on May 28, 2013.

According to NASA, four Russian spacewalks are planned during Expeditions 35 and 36 focusing on retrieving science experiments, deploying other experiments and conducting preparatory work to discard the Pirs docking compartment later during 2013. Pirs was to be replaced by the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, MLM, equipped with an airlock, docking port and laboratory. As of beginning of 2013, it was officially scheduled for launch on a Proton rocket at the end of the year, however the mission was likely to be postponed until 2014. The first of these spacewalks was to be conducted by Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko. The last three were to be performed by Fedor Yurchikhin and Aleksandr Misurkin.

Two spacewalks from the US segment of the station were also planned by NASA’s Chris Cassidy and ESA’s Luca Parmitano. These were focused on routing power and communication cables for the MLM module, replacing a faulty electronics box for the station’s Ku-band communication system, staging spacewalk tools and equipment, including a pair of radiator grapple bars, and completing a number of routine maintenance tasks deferred from previous spacewalks.

During the summer, the station crew was to receive the fourth Japanese HTV and the fourth European ATV cargo ships.

Soyuz TMA-08M and its crew was scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 11, 2013.

Landing
Soyuz TMA-08M carrying Chris Cassidy, Pavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin undocked from the Poisk mini-research module of the Russian segment of the ISS on Sept. 10, 2013, at 7:35 p.m. EDT. The ship's descent module then landed as scheduled in Kazakhstan at 10:58 p.m. EDT (08:58 local time on Sept. 11, 2013).

After the homeward-bound trio entered the Soyuz, they closed its hatches at 4:19 p.m., began leak checks and put on their Sokol pressure suits. The day before, Vinogradov handed over control of the station to Flight Engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin in a traditional Change of Command Ceremony in the Zvezda service module.

They leave behind new station Commander Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano who became Expedition 37 when the Soyuz TMA-08M undocked from Poisk.

Waiting back on Earth to join Expedition 37 are future crew members Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins and Sergey Ryazanskiy. They are in Kazakhstan preparing for a Sept. 25 launch in their Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft. The new space trio will arrive at the orbital laboratory just four orbits, or six hours, later and dock to Poisk.

The current station residents arrived at the station and docked to the Rassvet module on May 28, just four orbits after launch. They are due to go home in November in their Soyuz TMA-09M.