astronomy

Soyuz MS-09

Soyuz MS-09 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Soyuz MS-09 rather than just read about it. In short: Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 6 June 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 56/57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS).

Key takeaways

Soyuz MS-09 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soyuz MS-09 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soyuz MS-09 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 6 June 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 56/57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). MS-09 is the 138th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander along with an American and a German flight engineer. The mission ended at 05:02 UTC on 20 December 2018. The European segment of the mission was called "Horizons".

Crew

Air leak During the night of 29 August 2018, a small air leak in the ISS was noticed by ground control. A 2 mm (0.079 in) hole in the orbital module was discovered, later stated to have been "hidden with a low-quality patch job". Russian crew members used Kapton tape to temporarily seal the leak while a permanent fix was devised. The leak was successfully sealed with the use of a repair kit based on an epoxy sealant, and no further changes in air pressure were noted as of 31 August. On 4 September 2018, it was announced that the hole was created by a drill, but it was unclear if it was accidental or deliberate. Russian officials indicated the hole was some kind of sabotage, perhaps during the module's manufacturing process. Russian officials even speculated that one of the NASA crew members had drilled the hole. On 11 December 2018, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev conducted an EVA, cutting into the thermal blankets and pulling away insulation in order to examine the external hull, take images of the area, and retrieve samples of residue to be used in the investigation. As the hole was in the orbital module that is jettisoned before re-entry, the return flight was not endangered. The return of the MS-09 crew was briefly delayed by the launch failure of Soyuz MS-10 (until the arrival of the next crew on MS-11). MS-09 landed on 20 December at about 05:03 UTC. Further reports and investigations were enacted thereafter. Prokopyev was quoted as saying that the drill hole was made from the inside, but it is unclear when it was made. According to NASA officials, they know exactly when the leak began and no US astronauts were reportedly near the Russian segment, where the Soyuz was docked. In September 2019, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, claimed that Roscosmos knows exactly what happened but that the agency would keep this information secret. On 20 April 2021, major Russian language tabloid Moskovskij Komsomolets published an article citing a Facebook post by Vadim Lukashevich which claimed that the hole was drilled by Serena Auñón-Chancellor, after a blood clot developed in her jugular vein (a medical case which did occur), which was disputed by NASA and called "preposterous" by Ars Technica. The results of a Roscosmos investigation were later handed over to "law enforcement authorities" in late 2021, with state media promoting a new theory: that Auñón-Chancellor drilled the hole while "due to suffering [psychologically] after a failed romantic relationship with one of the crew members".

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soyuz MS-09

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soyuz MS-09 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Soyuz MS-09 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Soyuz MS-09 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Soyuz MS-09

In research: Soyuz MS-09 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Soyuz MS-09 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Soyuz MS-09 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2018 in Russia, Crewed Soyuz missions, Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soyuz MS-09 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Soyuz MS-09 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soyuz MS-09 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Soyuz MS-09 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soyuz MS-09 in simple terms?

Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 6 June 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 56/57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS).

Why does Soyuz MS-09 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Soyuz MS-09?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Soyuz MS-09.