Soyuz TMA-2

Soyuz TMA-2 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS 2003-04-28 and undocked 2003-10-27. Soyuz TMA-2 (Russian Союз ТМА-2, Union TMA-2) is a Russian spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, the second flight for the TMA modification of the Soyuz spacecraft, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS. The commander is Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (Ru... more

Soyuz TMA-2 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS 2003-04-28 and undocked 2003-10-27. Soyuz TMA-2 (Russian Союз ТМА-2, Union TMA-2) is a Russian spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, the second flight for the TMA modification of the Soyuz spacecraft, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS. The commander is Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (Russia), and flight engineer Edward Tsang Lu (USA), and after docking with the ISS they exchanged with the resident crew on ISS and became the seventh station crew, called "ISS Expedition Seven". As backup crew Alexander Kaleri and Michael Foale stood by. Originally the Soyuz missions to the ISS were all planned to be only taxi mission to deliver a new Soyuz spacecraft as the station's lifeboat every six month with a visiting crew, but not for crew exchange. Until the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster the same was planned for Soyuz TMA-2, a... less