Soyuz TMA-18M

Soyuz TMA-18M

Soyuz TMA-18M undocks from the ISS, 2 March 2016.
Operator	Roskosmos
COSPAR ID	2015-043A
SATCAT no.	40885
Mission duration	181d 23h 48m
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TMA 11F747 No.718
Manufacturer	RKK Energia
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Sergey Volkov
Launching	Andreas Mogensen Aydyn Aimbetov
Landing	Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly
Callsign	Eridan
Start of mission
Launch date	2 September 2015 04:37:42 UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-FG
End of mission
Landing date	2 March 2016 04:25:27 UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Poisk
Docking date	4 September 2015 07:42:00 UTC
Undocking date	2 March 2016 01:02:30 UTC
Time docked	179 days, 17 hours, 20 minutes
(l-r) Mogensen, Volkov and Aimbetov Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TMA-17M Soyuz TMA-19M →

Soyuz TMA-18M was a 2015 Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It provided the two twelve-months occupants (Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a fresh Soyuz capsule. TMA-18M was the 127th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft; the first having occurred in 1967. The ascent flight consisted of a Russian commander and two flight engineers from Denmark (ESA) and Kazakhstan respectively.^[1] The flight launched in September 2015 and returned to Earth in March 2016.

The Kazakh Aidyn Aimbetov is of the first Kazakh cosmonaut class, and the first to fly.^[2] The ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen became the first Dane in space.^[3]

The descent crew was the same Russian commander and the two twelve-months occupants in March 2016. Two of the ascent crew members returned to Earth with Soyuz TMA-16M in September 2015.