Soyuz MS-01, Expeditions 48 and 49

Due to the extended mission of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko, an opportunity arose for a short (approximately 10 day) visit to the station resembling the Soyuz ‘lifeboat’ swap-missions of the early 2000s. Gennadi Padalka would otherwise return after a standard 6 months with two spare seats in his Soyuz spacecraft. Also, a Soyuz would require to be delivered to the station to enable Kelly and Korniyenko to return to Earth. Soyuz TMA-18M launched in September 2015 with Sergei Volkov, ESA’s Andreas Mogensen and Khazcosmos’s Aydyn Aimbetov. Volkov remained on board as a member of Expeditions 45 and 46 and then landed on Soyuz TMA-18M with Kelly and Korniyenko. Mogensen and Aimbetov returned to Earth after 9 days with Soyuz TMA-16M Commander Padalka.

1. 1.

   Ambetov was selected along with Mukhtar Aimakhonov as the first Kazakh cosmonauts in 2002. After training in Star City, Moscow, the absence of opportunities to fly in space prompted Aimakhanov to relinquish Kazakh citizenship and become a Russian citizen to join the Russian cosmonaut corps. Ambetov returned to Kazakhstan and was still flight-ready when a seat in Soyuz TMA-18M became available. This vacancy arose because Soprano Sarah Brightman, who had been due to fly as a space tourist, declined the flight for family reasons, as did her backup, Japanese entrepreneur, Satoshi Takamatsu.

2. 2.

   Helen Sharman, Britain’s first cosmonaut, flew to the Mir space station in 1991 on a mission funded privately without the assistance of either the UK government or ESA.

3. 3.

   The intention was to jettison BEAM after a year, but in October 2017 NASA announced that the module would stay in place until 2020, with options for two further 1-year extensions.

4. 4.

   Robert Bigelow is the owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain and his ambition is to build a hotel in orbit.

5. 5.

   At the time of writing in 2018 it was noted that BEAM’s protective layers were as capable as the rest of the station at protecting from micrometeoroid impact and radiation. It had been decided that the crew should use it as an additional storage volume.

6. 6.

   Naval aviator and astronaut, Alan Poindexter flew on STS-122 and STS-131. He died on 1 July, 2012, aged 50, due to injuries received in a jet ski accident.

Authors and Affiliations

1. County Cork, Ireland

   John O’Sullivan

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