Soyuz TMA-20

The Soyuz TMA-20 prime and backup crews conduct their ceremonial tour of Red Square on November 26, 2010.

The Soyuz TMA-20 crew was confirmed by NASA on November 21, 2008.[3]

Position	Crew Member
Commander	Dmitri Kondratyev, Roscosmos Expedition 26 Only spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Catherine Coleman, NASA Expedition 26 Third and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Paolo Nespoli, ESA Expedition 26 Second spaceflight

Backup crew

Position	Crew Member
Commander	Anatoli Ivanishin, RSA
Flight Engineer 1	Satoshi Furukawa, JAXA
Flight Engineer 2	Michael Fossum, NASA

The Soyuz spacecraft suffered damage to its container during transport to the Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 5, 2010, according to the Interfax news agency.[6] Engineers spotted the damage after the spacecraft was shipped by rail from Russia to Kazakhstan. After initial inspections of the damage, Russian sources said that it was not immediately clear whether the spacecraft would have to be returned to the RKK Energia factory in Moscow. Later, Russian officials replaced the damaged descent module with a new one, flown to Baikonur aboard a cargo plane.[7] The replacement module was originally part of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft.

The Soyuz TMA-20 rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli to the International Space Station.

Despite the transportation damage, RKK Energia president Vitaly Lopota told news media that the mission would take place in December as planned.[8] Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov also told Interfax that the December launch date would not be affected, because a reserve spacecraft would be available at Baikonur for the mission, if required.[8]

The Soyuz spacecraft departs the Space Station on May 23, 2011.

A unique view of the ISS and Space Shuttle Endeavour from the Soyuz

The Soyuz TMA-20 capsule descends toward landing.

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft lands in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz crew is pictured shortly after landing.

This was a textbook entry for Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman. "All of the functions of the Soyuz TMA-20 were by the book, no issues reported.[13] – NASA MCC Commentator Rob Navias

After spending 157 days docked to the ISS, the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft, with Russian cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev at the controls, undocked from the Rassvet module at 21:35 UTC on May 23, 2011. The ISS was flying above eastern China at the time separated.[13] Kondratyev occupied the center seat, with NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman to his right, and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli to his left.

Kondratyev backed the spacecraft away from the ISS by about 600 feet and paused to give Nespoli a photo opportunity. Starting about 15 minutes after undocking, holding station at that vantage point directly behind the ISS, Nespoli took numerous photographs and several minutes of high-definition video of the station and the then-docked Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was conducting its final mission, STS-134.[14] The hatch between Soyuz TMA-20's descent and habitation modules, which was closed during undocking, was re-opened for the photo shoot, and Nespoli photographed the station-shuttle complex through a porthole in the habitation module. At 21:55 UTC, the ISS began to slowly rotate by 129 degrees to provide Nespoli with the best lighting conditions and a side-on view of Endeavour.[15] Nespoli spent about 25 minutes completing the photo survey, then removed the digital photo memory cards from his cameras and made his way back into the Soyuz descent module. Once Nespoli was strapped into the seat to the left of Kondratyev's, the descent-habitation module hatch was sealed, and the Soyuz spacecraft performed a separation burn at 22:15 UTC to increase its distance from the ISS.[13]

Flying over the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Soyuz executed its deorbit burn at 01:36 UTC on May 24. The deorbit burn was a four-minute, 16-second firing. The descent, habitation and propulsion modules making up the spacecraft separated at 02:01 UTC. The descent module, with the crew inside, reached the first traces of the Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 62 miles at 02:03 UTC.[13]

The re-entry was conducted without any significant problems. In stark contrast to the frigid cold temperatures prevailed on the previous Soyuz TMA-01M landing day, the weather this time was sunny and warm. Soyuz TMA-20's large parachute and smaller drogue chute inflated as planned, and the spacecraft descended towards its landing zone near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The safe landing of the descent module was supervised by Russian Search and Recovery forces on board three Antonov 12 and Antonov 26 planes, 14 Mi-8 helicopters and seven search and recovery vehicles, deployed in the landing zone.[16] The final moments of the touchdown were recorded by NASA TV, with live landing footage and commentary.

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft landed safely upright at 02:27 UTC on May 24, 2011,[17] after a mission lasting 159 days, seven hours and 17 minutes. Russian recovery forces moved to assist the Soyuz crew, along with U.S. and Russian flight surgeons. Kondratyev and Coleman appeared to be in good shape, smiling and chatting with support personnel and sharing a satellite phone to call family members back home. However, at a press conference held after the landing, Vyacheslav Rogozhkin, the deputy head of Federal Medical and Biological Agency, said that Naspoli was suffering from a minor health issue with his vestibular system.[18]

The crew was flown from the landing site to Karaganda to undergo medical checks.[19] In Karaganda, Coleman and Nespoli boarded a waiting NASA Gulfstream jet for a flight back to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Kontratyev was flown on a GCTC Tu-134 back to Chkalovsky airfield of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Zvezdny Gorodok.[20]