Soyuz TMA-11M was a 2013 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 38 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-11M is the 120th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, with the first flight launching in 1967. The successful docking of the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft on November 7, 2013 marked the first time since October 2009 that nine people have resided on the space station without the presence of a space shuttle.

The rocket and spacecraft applied Olympic symbols on the cowl of the ship. During mission, the Olympic torch has been passed for the first time in open space, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky passed it at the outlet of the International Space Station.

In preparation for the launch, a Soyuz-FG rocket was rolled out from the assembly building at Site 112 in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to the launch pad No. 5 at Site 1 on Nov. 5, 2013.

The liftoff of the Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft took place as scheduled on Nov. 7, 2013, at 08:14:15 Moscow Time (11:14 p.m. EST on November 6).

The spacecraft carried a NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and a Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. Along with crew, the Olympic torch representing winter games in the Russian resort of Sochi in 2014 was also onboard. It will be taken outside the station during a spacewalk and returned to Earth with a departing crew on Sunday.

Following a 528-second standard ascent profile to a 200 by 242-kilometer orbit with an inclination 51.6 degrees toward the Equator, the 7,220-kilogram spacecraft is expected to follow a four-orbit rendezvous profile, conducting one engine firing during the first orbit and three additional maneuvers during the second orbit.

The docking at the space station's MIM1 Rassvet module of the Russian segment is scheduled at 14:31 Moscow Time (5:31 a.m. EST) on November 7, six hours, 17 minutes after the liftoff. It actually took place slightly ahead of schedule at 14:28 Moscow Time (5:28 a.m. EST) on November 7. Comparing to previous one-day flights to the station, the rendezvous period for Soyuz TMA-11M was increased by a half an hour to ensure the docking in the range of the Russian ground control network.

With the arrival of Soyuz TMA-11M, three manned transport ships would be berthed at the station simultaneously for the first time since 2009.

Hatches between Soyuz TMA-11M and the station will open about two hours after docking and three new members will join six other residents of the outpost already onboard. New station crew members Mikhail Tyurin, Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio will join Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg, Luca Parmitano, Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins and Sergey Ryazansky.

Landing
The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft with Mikhail Tyurin, Richard Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata onboard undocked from the MIM1 Rassvet module within the Russian segment of the ISS on May 14, 2014, at 02:36 Moscow Time. The landing of its descent module took place as scheduled at 05:58 Moscow Time 147 kilometers southeast of Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan. The mission of Soyuz TMA-11M lasted 187 days, 21 hours and 44 minutes in flight.

SS040-E-000002 (14 May 2014) --- The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft's docking probe is seen just after separation from the International Space Station. This photo was among the first group of images downlinked from the station following the start of duty for the three Expediton 40 crew members, who will be joined by three more crew members in approxcimately two weeks. With Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA onboard, the Soyuz went on to land near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on May 14, 2014. Wakata, Tyurin and Mastracchio returned to Earth after more than six months onboard the orbital outpost where they served as members of the Expedition 38 and 39 crews.