. SOYUZ TM33

Flight Crew

AFANASYEV, Viktor Mikhailovich, 52, Russian Air Force, commander, 4th mission

Previous missions: Soyuz TM11 (1990); Soyuz TM18 (1994); Soyuz TM29 (1999)

HAIGNERE, Claudie, 44, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM24 ( 1996)

KOZEEV, Konstantin Mirovich, 33, civilian, flight engineer

Flight Log

The announcement of French cosmonaut Claudie Haignere (formerly Andre – Deshays) to the crew of the second Soyuz Taxi mission had been made in December 2002. With the back-up cosmonaut crew of the first Taxi mission recycled to this flight, this would be a far less controversial mission than that of Dennis Tito, as Haignere had previously completed a visit to the Mir station in 1996. For her new mission, she would be conducting the ESA “Andromede’’ programme of experiments, sponsored by the French Space Agency CNES. Soyuz TM33 docked to ISS on 23 October.

During the week aboard the station, the Derbent cosmonauts assisted their French colleague with her science programme and brought the small cargo of supplies and equipment from the Soyuz to the station. They also exchanged their personal seat liners with those in the TM32 spacecraft, which they would use to return to Earth at the end of their mission. They tested the systems and controls of the returning spacecraft and took air samples from inside the Russian segment of the station for analysis back on Earth, as well as participating in a number of small experiments and research tasks.

Haignere’s science programme included two experiments devoted to the observa­tion of Earth and the study of the ionosphere. There were three experiments in life sciences – in the fields of neuroscience, physiology and developmental biology. There

were two physics experiments prepared jointly by ESA and the German Space Agency, and two technology experiments and operational experiments designed to flight-test equipment and develop procedures, initiated by the European Astronaut Corps (EAC).

French high schools also devised educational experiments for the mission, a continuation of similar educational experiments flown during the 1999 French mission to Mir. These educational experiments included a wide range of studies to support science teaching in schools.

Throughout the mission, a French project team located at the Moscow TsUP Control Centre and another at the Toulouse Space Centre provided daily mission support to the flight crew, with two audio links per day and permanent monitoring between ISS and ground control. Haignere received briefing and debriefing sheets via email from the new CADMOS (Centre for the Development of Microgravity Applications and Space Operations) based at Toulouse. Two CNES specialists mon­itored the docking of Soyuz and activities at TsUP, while at JSC in Houston, French ESA astronaut Michel Tognini provided interface between the support team in France and the one in Moscow, updating them with American activities and monitoring of the mission.

The Derbent crew returned in the Soyuz TM32 spacecraft on З1 October 2001 after a ten-day mission, leaving the newer Soyuz TM33 spacecraft for the ISS-4 crew and further highlighting the benefit of including small programmes of experiments on such Taxi missions in the future.

Milestones

228th manned space flight 92nd Russian manned space flight 85th manned Soyuz mission 32nd manned Soyuz TM mission 3rd ISS Soyuz mission (3S)

2nd Taxi flight 2nd visiting mission

1st European (French) woman to board ISS