| Mission Statistics | |
| Mission: | Soyuz TMA-2 |
| Call sign: | |
| Spacecraft: | Soyuz TMA #212 |
| Launch: | April 26, 2003 03:53:52 UTC Baikonur LC1 |
| Contact with ISS: | April 28, 2003 05:56:20 UTC nadir docking port of Zarya/FGB-1 module |
| Undocking from ISS: | October 27, 2003 23:17 UTC |
| Landing: | October 28, 2003 02:41 UTC 49.55° N, 66.57° E, near Arkalyk |
| Duration: | 184 days 21:47 |
| Orbits: | |
| Perigee: | 200 km [+7, -22] km |
| Apogee: | 242 km [± 42] km |
| Inclination: | 51.67° [± 0.058]° |
| Orbital period: | 1h 18m 38s [± 22.02] s |
| Reserve backup data | |
| Launch: | April 29, 2003 02:43:02 UTC Baikonur LC1 |
| Contact with ISS: | May 1, 2003 04:43 [± 3]m UTC |
Soyuz TMA-2 (Russian Союз ТМА-2, Union TMA-2) is a Russian spaceflight mission to the International Space Station, the second flight for the TMA modification of the Soyuz spacecraft, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS.
The commander is Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (Russia), and flight engineer Edward Tsang Lu (USA), and after docking with the ISS they exchanged with the resident crew on ISS and became the seventh station crew, called "ISS Expedition Seven". As backup crew Alexander Kaleri and Michael Foale stood by.
Originally the Soyuz missions to the ISS were all planned to be only taxi mission to deliver a new Soyuz spacecraft as the station's lifeboat every six month with a visiting crew, but not for crew exchange. Until the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster the same was planned for Soyuz TMA-2, a visiting crew consisting of commander Gennadi Padalka and ESA-astronaut Pedro Duque were to spend about one week at the station and then return with the previous Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft. The third seat might have gone to the Chilean Klaus von Storch as a space tourist, but even before the Columbia disaster it looked like his flight would not happen, and the seat would go to the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov or to deliver freight to the station.
During his stay on the station, Malenchenko became the first person to get married in space. His bride was in Texas where long distance marriages are legal.
The spacecraft returned to Earth on October 28, with both the "Expedition 7" crew as well as Pedro Duque on board. Duque was launched with Soyuz TMA-3 and spent only one week on board of the ISS.
| Previous Mission: Soyuz TMA-1 |
Soyuz Programme | Next Mission: Soyuz TMA-3 |
