Changes to computers and data exchange
TMA-01M was the first flight of the Soyuz TMA-M variant, commissioned by Russia’s Federal Space Agency and principally developed by RSC Energia. It retained the basic Soyuz form, crew-transport assignment and division into orbital, descent and instrument-propulsion modules. Changes centered on guidance, navigation, control and measurement equipment and improved data exchange with computers in the station’s Russian segment.
NASA’s prelaunch press kit stated that lighter avionics reduced spacecraft mass by about seventy kilograms, freeing payload mass while leaving bulky-cargo volume unchanged. TMA-15 and TMA-18 had already used the newer Neptune digital display panel, and seven Progress cargo spacecraft had tested the upgraded avionics computers. TMA-01M brought the two together. Its description as digital Soyuz referred to this system upgrade within a spacecraft family already using computers.
Three crew members aboard a new variant
Commander Alexander Kaleri had completed four space missions and worked on Mir design documentation and testing. Oleg Skripochka, an Energia transport and cargo-spacecraft engineer, was making his first flight. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly had flown twice on the shuttle. Soyuz command and station command were separate assignments: Kelly later led Expedition 26, while Kaleri remained responsible for Soyuz flight and return.
The Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off from Baikonur at approximately 23:10:55 UTC on 7 October 2010, or 05:10 on 8 October locally. Both dates describe the same launch. After roughly two days of rendezvous, the spacecraft docked with Poisk at about 00:01 UTC on 10 October. Joining Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin restored Expedition 25’s complement to six.
A docked spacecraft remains a return vehicle
After docking, Soyuz served as the resident crew’s return craft and emergency escape vehicle. One upgrade objective was automatic transfer of relevant station parameters, reducing earlier periodic ground-commanded computer activation and manual entry of emergency departure and deorbit data. Thermal control also changed, including cold plates and modified cooling pumps.
First-flight testing continued after docking. ESA’s March 2011 status reports record instrument problems after launch and Kaleri installing roll-rate instrumentation for the Neptune-ME crew console in February. Ground teams arranged manual attitude-hold and roll-rate tests after departure; a proposed station flyaround was cancelled for feasibility reasons. Routine transport and engineering verification proceeded together.
Research work and returned samples
Most research took place aboard the station, with Soyuz returning people and selected results. On 28 February and 4 March 2011, Kelly photographed samples for Coloured Fungi in Space; images went to the BIOTESC support center in Zurich. The study investigated fungal survival and growth. Its short-duration live cultures returned on Discovery, separate from the TMA-01M return cargo.
The Matroshka human-phantom radiation experiment did return material on this Soyuz. Paolo Nespoli moved the phantom from Japan’s Kibo module to the Russian segment on 10 March; Kaleri and Skripochka removed passive dosimeters recording accumulated exposure inside the simulated head and torso. They returned on TMA-01M on 16 March for analysis at the German Aerospace Center in Cologne. The status report confirms recovery of the recording instruments, with final dose results still to follow.
Testing after departure and landing safely
The three rehearsed return procedures on 13 March while ground controllers directed checks of motion control, hand controllers and braking thrusters. TMA-01M left Poisk at 04:27 UTC on 16 March, ending Expedition 26. Both post-departure avionics tests succeeded, leaving the crew with two automatic and two manual landing modes.
The spacecraft began a four-minute-seventeen-second deorbit burn at approximately 07:03, then separated its modules. The descent capsule landed near Arkalyk on the Kazakh steppe at about 07:54 UTC, or 13:54 locally. Russian recovery personnel helped the three out in severe cold. NASA records approximately 159 days in space, including about 157 aboard the station. The mission completed crew rotation and scientific returns while recording actual operation, fault handling and return tests for the upgraded avionics.