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ISS Expedition 11

Sergei’s sixth flight and fourth long-duration mission; his first as commander.

Mission data

ISS-11 prime crew
МКС-11 основной экипаж
Name Role Origin
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov
Сергей Константинович Крикалёв
  • ISS Commander
  • Soyuz Commander
 Energiya, Russia
John Lynch Phillips
  • ISS Flight Engineer
  • Soyuz Flight Engineer
  • ISS Science Officer
 NASA, USA
ISS-11 backup crew
МКС-11 дублирующий экипаж
Name Role Origin
Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin
Михаил Владиславович Тюрин
  • ISS Commander
  • Soyuz Commander
 Energiya, Russia
Daniel Michio Tani
  • ISS Flight Engineer
  • Soyuz Flight Engineer
  • ISS Science Officer
 NASA, USA
Flight details
Call-sign, позывной Bazal’t, Базадьт (“Basalt” – Sergei’s)
Launch 15 April 2005 at 00:46:25 UTC
Launch vehicle Soyuz-FG (11А511U-FG, № Zh15000-014) rocket containing the Soyuz TMA-6 transport spacecraft
Launch site Launch Complex 17P32-5, Area 1, Launch Pad 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Docking 17 April 2005 at 02:10 UTC to the Pirs DC-1 nadir docking port
Undocking 10 October 2005 at 21:49 from the Zarya FGB nadir docking port
Deorbit burn 11 October 2005 at 00:19
Landing 11 October 2005 at 01:10
Landing site 57 km NE (41°N 67°E) of the town of Arkhalyk, Northern Kazakhstan landing zone
Landing vehicle Soyuz TMA-7
Flight duration 179d 23m
Spacewalks 1

Notes

  • Launch of ISS-11 crew and Italian astronaut operating under the Program of visiting crew (VC-8) by transport manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-6, flight 10S;
  • Docking of spacecraft Soyuz TMA-6 to docking compartment Pirs;
  • Operational support for loading and undocking of Soyuz TMF-5, Progress M-52, Progress M-53;
  • Operational support for docking of Progress M-53, Progress M-54, Soyuz TMA-7 and Space Shuttles, LF1 and LF1.1 flights;
  • Unloading of spacecraft Soyuz TMA-6, Progress M-53 and Progress M-54;
  • Redocking of spacecraft Soyuz TMA-6 from docking compartment Pirs to Functional Cargo Block Zarya;
  • Support of the Space Station functionality;
  • Performance of extravehicular activity: two EVAs, one EVA on the USOS, one EVA on the Russian Segment (the Russian segment spacewalk was carried out, the U.S. one deferred);
  • Performance of the science and application research program and experiments (“SVS”, “Relaksatsia”, “Uragan”, “Sprut-MBI”, “Diurez”, “Farma”, “Cardio-ODNT”, “Biotest”, “Profilaktika”, “Pulse”, “Gematologia”, “Pilot”, “Biorisk”, “Rastenia-2”, “Intercellular interaction”, “Statokonia”, “Regeneratsia”, “Prognos”, “Brados”, “Matryoshka-R”, “Diatomeya”, “Volny”, “Mimetik-K”, “Vaktsina-K”, “Biodegradatsia”, “Bioekologia”, “Interleukin-K”, “Meteoroid”, “Toksichnost”, “Plasma crystal”, “Identifikatsia”, “Skorpion”, “Ekon”, “Plasma-MKS”, “Kromka”), as well as contract-based commercial activities (GTS, MPAC&SEED, “GCF-JAXA”, “Rokviss”, “Neurocog-3”, “ETD”);
  • Implementation of the Experimental Program under the ISM “ENEIDE” Project (“CRISP-2”, “BEANS”, “SEEDLINGS”, “FRTL-5”, “MICROSPACE”, “VINO”, “HPA” (this experiment will be conducted on the USOS of the ISS), “NGF”, “VSV”, “ETD-I”, “FTS”, “MOP-I”, “ENEIDE”, “LAZIO”, “EST”, “E-NOSE”, “HBM”, “SPQR”, “ASIA”, “GOAL”, “BOP”, “ESD”, “ARISS-4”) during VC-8;
  • Crew handover to Increment ISS-12 and return to Earth of 2 members of Increment ISS-11 crew and the participant of Visiting Crew 9 (VC-9) by transport manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-7.

(Source: Energiya)

Sergei was initially assigned as ISS commander for Expedition 10, along with Sergei Volkov and NASA astronaut John L. Phillips (they trained as back-ups for the original Expedition 7 crew). The Columbia tragedy of course threw future flight plans into disarray.

In October 2004, Sergei was assigned to Expedition 11, along with NASA astronaut John Phillips, to fly on Soyuz TMA-6 and they launched on 15 May 2005 (docked 17 May). Sergei was also the Soyuz pilot and commander. Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov was to have joined them on STS-121 a bit later, in June 2005, but his mission was unfortunately cancelled, and he was to be replaced by ESA/German astronaut Thomas Reiter.

The crew was officially named on 23 November in NASA Press Release H04-383.

Sergei was the fourth civilian cosmonaut to pilot a Soyuz (sit in the commander’s seat in the middle) – the first civilian Soyuz commander was Nikolai Rukavishnikov, the second was Valeri Kubasov and the third was Aleksander Kaleri. To add to his many firsts, he would be the first cosmonaut to be a member of two ISS Expeditions, and the first spaceman to visit the ISS three times!

Events

Launches during Expedition 11’s mission
Mission Launch Landing Purpose
Progress M-53 17 June 2005 7 September 2005 (burned up in atmosphere) Cargo supplies delivery
STS-114/​LF-1 Discovery 26 July 2005 9 August 2005
  • Return-to-Flight.
  • Replace Control Movement Gyroscope-2.
  • Install External Stowage Platform.
  • MPLM Raffaello cargo delivery.
Progress M-54 8 September 2005 3 March 2006 (burned up in atmosphere) Cargo supplies delivery
Soyuz TMA-7 1 October 2005   Crew transport
Expedition 12 1 October 2005   Twelfth long-duration crew
Visiting Crew 9 1 October 2005 11 October 2005
  • Ninth short-duration crew.
  • Soyuz ship exchange.
  • Third space tourist.

Sergei events

30 July 2005
Sergei reached 2 years of accumulated time in orbit today; beginning his third year in space
16 August
At 05:45 GMT/UTC, Sergei overtook cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev’s longstanding record of 747 d 14 h 14 m 11 s accumulated flight time!
27 August
Sergei’s 47th birthday

Links to all the Expedition 11 Sergei photos I could find! (And ones that were sent to me :-).)

Canadian Space Agency photos

From their Soyuz Mission gallery (CSA astronaut Robert Thirsk was backup flight engineer for Roberto Vittori): 25, 22, 18, 19, 16, 15, 9.

Cup Noodle No Border Space Project

Sergei was required to appear in this Japanese ad for Cup Noodles, filmed during the Expedition 11 & 12 handover.

Cosmonauts have been filming ads in space as part of their contracts since the 1990s on Mir, and the money goes into the Russian space program. It does, though, seem a bit of a distraction from the task of colonizing space.

I hope Sergei isn’t required to do this sort of thing too often! (Or again!) He is supposed to be doing things like going to Mars!

The ad isn’t too bad … if you can ignore the cheesy soundtrack … at least Sergei didn’t have to speak!

Some small screenshots I took during the video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Some scenes from TsUP. Representatives for the Nissin Cup Noodle company were, along with some TsUP personnel, co-ordinating the filming: 1, 2, 3.

Cup Noodle No Border Space Project. The site has disappeared, but a Flash movie copy is at YouTube: Nissin Cup Noodle CM (NO BORDER No.7).

Element 21 Golf Company

Sergei apparently got roped into yet another promotion during Expedition 11, this for the “Golf Shot Around the World” mission, as described in this collectSPACE posting: Fore! ISS launched golf shot to go miles and miles …

He appears in two promotional photos with a golf club in the Zvezda module: Photo 1 and Photo 2.

Energiya photos

Expedition 11 photo archive.

ESA Eneide photos

Photos from the Eneide gallery at the ESA Eneide mission page. I have linked to the high-resolution photos; right-click to download and save without opening.

Preflight

SEMKF4P256E (770 KB), SEMU34P256E (869 KB), SEMIG4P256E (681 KB), SEMFSZO256E (635 KB), SEMY2BW797E (375 KB), SEM83BW797E (1.4 MB), SEMT2EW797E (544 KB), SEM1WDW797E (417 KB).

Inflight

SEMEATW797E (1.38 MB), SEM3BTW797E (1.27 MB).

ESA Photolibrary

After registering at the ESA Photo Library for Professionals (which I am not, but I had no problems :-)), these photos were found by doing word searches for “Krikalev” and “Vittori”. They show the TMA-6 crew training in the Soyuz simulator in March 2005. The links are to photos stored in my Photobucket account.

Miscellaneous photos

Some small photos sent to me by Cezy, of TV footage on 24 March 2005 before the crew were to do the final test in a mock-up of the Zvezda and Zarya training modules in Star City: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

A blurry video screenshot of Sergei (at left, in the center seat) and Roberto Vittori in the cramped Soyuz cockpit during the ascent to orbit.

NASA photos

Quick links to all Sergei photos at the NASA galleries. The links will take you to a thumbnail page where you can download low- or hi-res versions.

Photo gallery start page (all photos together).

Preflight

Inflight (Expedition 10 & 11 galleries)

Postflight

STS-114

ISS Status Briefing Materials, June 13, 2005

Novosti Kosmonavtiki gallery

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Crew portraits

Official crew photos and patches.

Expedition 11 mission patch (NASA)

Expedition 11 mission patch.

ISS-11 Soyuz patch (NASA)

Soyuz TMA-6/Visiting Crew-8 patch.

ISS-11 crew (NASA)

Expedition 11 crew (S. Krikalyov, J. Phillips).

Soyuz TMA-6 in Sokol suits (NASA)

Eneide/VC-8/TMA-6 portrait in Sokol spacesuits (R. Vittori, S. Krikalyov, J. Phillips).

Eneide crew (NASA)

Eneide/VC-8/TMA-6 in civilian clothes, 3 February 2005.

ISS-11, in civilian clothes (NASA)

Expedition 11, in civilian clothes, 3 February 2005.

Eneide/Soyuz TMA-6 crew (ESA)

ESA Eneide/VC-8/TMA-6 in jumpsuits.