.jpg) Docking of Soyuz MS-20 | |
| Names | ISS 66S |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Space tourism |
| Operator | Roscosmos |
| COSPAR ID | 2021-119A |
| SATCATno. | 49922 |
| Mission duration | 11 days, 19 hours and 34 minutes |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Soyuz MS No. 752 |
| Spacecraft type | Soyuz MS |
| Manufacturer | RSC Energia |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | |
| Callsign | Altair |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 8 December 2021, 07:38:15 (2021-12-08UTC07:38:15Z) UTC[1][2] |
| Rocket | Soyuz-2.1a |
| Launch site | Baikonur,Site 31/6 |
| Contractor | RKTs Progress |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 20 December 2021, 03:12:52 (2021-12-20UTC03:12:53Z) UTC |
| Landing site | Kazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan (47°21′N69°37′E / 47.350°N 69.617°E /47.350; 69.617) |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Inclination | 51.66° |
| Docking withISS | |
| Docking port | Poisk zenith |
| Docking date | 8 December 2021, 16:40:44 UTC |
| Undocking date | 19 December 2021, 23:50:30 UTC |
| Time docked | 11 days, 10 hours and 9 minutes |
 Soyuz MS-20 mission patch .jpg) From left:Maezawa,Misurkin andHirano | |
Soyuz MS-20 was a RussianSoyuz spaceflight to theInternational Space Station (ISS) on 8–20 December 2021.[1] Unlike previous Soyuz flights to the ISS, Soyuz MS-20 did not deliver any crew members for an ISSExpedition or serve as a lifeboat for any crew members on board the station. Instead, it was commanded by a single professional cosmonaut. It carried twospace tourists represented by companySpace Adventures, which had executed eight space tourism missions to the ISS between 2001 and 2009.[3][4] The flight to reach the ISS took six hours.[5]
Alexander Misurkin, a veteran of two long-duration missions to the ISS, commanded the Soyuz, which was modified to allow it to be flown by a sole cosmonaut.
| Position | Crew member | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Alexander Misurkin,Roscosmos Visiting Third and last spaceflight | |
| Spaceflight Participant 1 |  Yusaku Maezawa,Space AdventuresVisiting First spaceflight | |
| Spaceflight Participant 2 | Yozo Hirano,Space Adventures Visiting First spaceflight | |
| Position | Crew member | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Alexander Skvortsov,Roscosmos | |
| Spaceflight Participant 1 | None‡ | |
| Spaceflight Participant 2 | Shun Ogiso,Space Adventures | |
| ‡ CosmonautAndrey Fedyaev played the role of Spaceflight Participant 1 during training | ||
For some time, it was speculated thatAustrian airline pilotJohanna Maislinger would be one of the tourists, but on 13 May 2021, Space Adventures confirmed thatJapanese billionaire, art collector and space enthusiastYusaku Maezawa had acquired both seats, the other for his production assistantYozo Hirano. This was the first time two Japanese launched to space together.[6]
In July 2021, Space Adventures Moscow Office changed their previous story and said that Maislinger had never had access to the funds she had claimed, and they had never treated her as a serious candidate.[7]
It was also reported in April 2021 that Japanese entertainerYumi Matsutoya was to fly on Soyuz MS-20 with Maislinger.[8]
Soyuz MS-20 marks the first tourist flight to the ISS after more than 12 years since CanadianGuy Laliberté onboardSoyuz TMA-16 in September 2009.[9] British singerSarah Brightman was to flySoyuz TMA-18M in September 2015, but she cancelled in May 2015.[10]
Soyuz MS-20 was also reported in April 2020 as the first of at least two completely commercial Soyuz flights byRoscosmos, to be followed bySoyuz MS-23 in October 2022 carrying one cosmonaut and two passengers, possibly fromUnited Arab Emirates, to the ISS for six months.[11] However, this was changed to a standard Russian-AmericanExpedition 68 launch even during 2021; and after the events of 2022 culminated in December with a micrometeorite puncturing theSoyuz MS-22 cooling system, Soyuz MS-23 was launched on 24 February 2023 empty to replace it.
Soyuz MS-20 also marks a departure from the way space tourism was done in the 2000s. Previous missions took one tourist during either a taxi flight, where Soyuz lifeboats on the ISS were swapped, allowing for about a week-long stay or handover periods between crews, where the tourist would launch with an incoming long-duration crew and land with the outgoing one. Soyuz MS-20 switched to a flight entirely dedicated to two space tourists. Soon afterward, American companyAxiom Space carried out asimilar flight withSpaceX, where an Axiom-hired professional astronaut flew with three paying tourists to the ISS on boardCrew DragonEndeavour, on 8–25 April 2022.[12][13]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.| Main topics |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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