Soyuz MS-04 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 20 April 2017 to the ISS.[1] It transported two members of the Expedition 52 crew to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-04 was the 133rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander and an American flight engineer. It was the first of the Soyuz MS series to rendezvous with the Station in approximately 6 hours, instead of the 2 day orbital rendezvous used for the previous launches. It was also the first Soyuz to launch with only 2 crew members since Soyuz TMA-2.

Crew

Position[2] Launching Crew Member Landing Crew Member
Commander Russia Fyodor Yurchikhin, Roscosmos
Expedition 51
Fifth and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 United States Jack D. Fischer, NASA
Expedition 51
Only spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 N/A United States Peggy Whitson, NASA[3]
Expedition 50/51/52
Third (last NASA) [4] spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[2] Crew Member
Commander Russia Sergey Ryazansky, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1 United States Randolph Bresnik, NASA

Due to a decision to cut down the number of participating Russian astronauts in 2017, only two astronauts were launched on Soyuz MS-04.[5] Originally set to include 3 people, the crew assignments were changed in November 2016 by NASA and Roscosmos.

Original crew

Position Crew member
Commander Russia Alexander Misurkin, Roscosmos
Expedition 51
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Nikolai Tikhonov, Roscosmos
Expedition 51
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 United States Mark T. Vande Hei, NASA
Expedition 51
First spaceflight

Alexander Misurkin and Mark T. Vande Hei were reassigned to Soyuz MS-06 and served as part of Expedition 53/54,[6] Nikolai Tikhonov was reassigned to Soyuz MS-10 to serve as part of Expedition 57/58 although was also pulled of that mission due to the same budget cuts.[7]

References

  1. ^ Pietrobon, Steven (5 February 2017). "Russian Launch Manifest". Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Manned Spaceflight Launch and Landing Schedule". spacefacts. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  3. ^ Harwood, William. "Whitson's station expedition extended three months". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  4. ^ Potter, Sean (15 June 2018). "Record-Setting NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Retires". NASA. Retrieved 24 June 2018. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ Irene Klotz (16 November 2016). "NASA, Russia Set Flights for Trimmed-Down Space Station Crew". space.com. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  6. ^ "Soyuz MS-06 arrives at ISS".
  7. ^ "No U.S. Crew Will Command the International Space Station in 2019". 30 May 2018.

External links