Soyuz TMA-9


Soyuz TMA-9 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was a human spaceflight mission transporting personnel to and from the ISS. It launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006 at 08:09 MSD, docked with the ISS at 09:21 MSD on 20 September, and returned to Earth on 21 April 2007. Soyuz TMA-9 transported two-thirds of ISS Expedition 14 to the space station along with one "spaceflight participant" who performed several experiments on behalf of the European Space Agency.

Crew

Crew notes

was originally scheduled to be the spaceflight participant, but on 21 August 2006, he was determined to be unfit for the flight due to medical reasons, and replaced by Anousheh Ansari, his back-up crew member.

Docking with ISS

Soyuz TMA-9, known within the International Space Station program as ISS Soyuz 13, was the 32nd crewed flight to the ISS. It is of note because for three days, from 18–21 September 2006, it marked the first time since before the Columbia accident that twelve humans have been in space simultaneously; three aboard the International Space Station, three aboard Soyuz TMA-9, and six aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, flying mission STS-115.
The capsule successfully launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-FG rocket at 09:08 MDS on Monday 18 September 2006. It successfully docked with the ISS on Wednesday 20 September to begin a six-month stay on the orbiting laboratory.
Anousheh Ansari, the Spaceflight Participant launched by TMA-9, has returned to Earth safely alongside Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeffrey Williams of the Expedition 13 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on 29 September 2006 at 01:13 UTC. Undocking from the ISS took place at 21:53 UTC on 28 September. López-Alegría and Tyurin undocked from ISS on 21 April 2007, 09:11 UTC, and landed at 12:31:30 UTC, after a seven-month stay on the station.
When the capsule landed after 215 days in space, exceeding the 210-day warranty for Soyuz TMA spacecraft, it concluded the longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft.