science

Soyuz TMA-14M

Soyuz TMA-14M is a science 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 TMA-14M rather than just read about it. In short: Soyuz TMA-14M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 41 crew to the International Space Station.

Key takeaways

Soyuz TMA-14M belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soyuz TMA-14M to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soyuz TMA-14M from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Soyuz TMA-14M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 41 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-14M is the 123rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967. The Soyuz remained docked to the space station for the Expedition 42 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle until undocking and landing as scheduled in March 2015.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission highlights

Launch, rendezvous and docking Soyuz TMA-14M successfully launched aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 20:25 UTC on Thursday, 25 September 2014 (2:25 AM Friday 26 September local time). The spacecraft reached low Earth orbit approximately nine minutes after lift-off. After reaching orbit, the Soyuz spacecraft's port solar array failed to deploy, but eventually did deploy after docking with the ISS. According to NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, the solar array does not pose a threat to the success of the mission. Following a four-orbit rendezvous, the spacecraft docked with the Poisk module of the International Space Station just under six hours after launch, at 02:11 UTC on Friday, 26 September. Hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 04:06 UTC. At this time, the crew of TMA-14M joined the crew of Expedition 41, where they were scheduled to remain until the crew of Soyuz TMA-13M departed in November 2014. Samokutyayev, Serova and Wilmore transferred to the crew of Expedition 42 at that time.

Undocking and return to Earth TMA-14M remained docked to the ISS—serving as an emergency escape vehicle—until March 11, 2015, when it departed and returned Samokutyayev, Serova and Wilmore to Earth. After undocking from the ISS at 22:44 UTC on 11 March, the spacecraft deorbited and its descent module along with the mission crew landed safely just over three hours later, at 02:07 UTC on 12 March.

Gallery

In media In the 2014 film Gravity, STS-157 Mission Specialist Dr. Ryan Stone pilots the damaged Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft in her travel from the ISS to the Chinese Tiangong-1 station and is able to hack the computer to separate the modules and activate the landing retrorockets in space as the capsule is out of fuel.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soyuz TMA-14M

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soyuz TMA-14M claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 TMA-14M 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 TMA-14M 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 TMA-14M

In research: Soyuz TMA-14M appears in science 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 TMA-14M 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 TMA-14M is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 in Russia, Crewed Soyuz missions, Human spaceflights to the International Space Station, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soyuz TMA-14M 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 TMA-14M in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soyuz TMA-14M 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 TMA-14M out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soyuz TMA-14M in simple terms?

Soyuz TMA-14M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 41 crew to the International Space Station.

Why does Soyuz TMA-14M matter?

Because it connects several science 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 TMA-14M?

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 TMA-14M.