astronomy

Soyuz TMA-16

Soyuz TMA-16 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 TMA-16 rather than just read about it. In short: The Soyuz TMA-16 (Russian: Союз TMA-16) was a crewed flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It transported two members of the Expedition 21 crew and a Canadian entrepreneur from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ISS.

Key takeaways

Soyuz TMA-16 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 TMA-16 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soyuz TMA-16 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Soyuz TMA-16 (Russian: Союз TMA-16) was a crewed flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It transported two members of the Expedition 21 crew and a Canadian entrepreneur from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ISS. TMA-16 was the 103rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967. The launch of Soyuz TMA-16 marked the first time since 1969 that three Soyuz craft were in orbit simultaneously. Guy Laliberté, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, was a Space tourist aboard TMA-16 during its flight to the ISS, paying approximately US$35 million for his seat through the American firm Space Adventures. He returned on board the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft left as an emergency vehicle during that previous flight. The Soyuz TMA-16 flight spacecraft flew back to Earth with only two crew members.

Crew

Backup Crew

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-16 was docked to the ISS at the aft port of the Zvezda module. On January 21, 2010, cosmonaut Suraev and Expedition 22 Commander Jeffrey Williams relocated the spacecraft to the zenith-facing port of the Poisk module. The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft undocked from the aft end of the Zvezda service module at 5:03 a.m. EST and backed away to a distance of about 100 feet from the space station. Undocking occurred as the station flew about 213 miles high off the southwest coast of Africa. Re-docking occurred at 5:24 a.m. EST after Suraev fired the Soyuz maneuvering thrusters to fly halfway around the orbiting space station and line up with the Poisk module. Spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté landed aboard Soyuz TMA-14 after approximately 12 days in space while Surayev and Williams landed aboard TMA-16 in Kazakhstan on March 18, 2010.

Space tourism status Soyuz TMA-16 was the final flight of a space tourist to the International Space Station for more than a decade. With the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle and the expansion of the station to six crew members, all Soyuz crew positions for the foreseeable future were to be occupied by Expedition crew until another crewed spacecraft such as Dragon 2 or Starliner was available to service the International Space Station.

References

External links

Soyuz TMA-16 tracking Guy Laliberté in training Archived 2009-06-06 at the Wayback Machine Soyuz TMA-16 pictures

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soyuz TMA-16

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soyuz TMA-16 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 TMA-16 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-16 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-16

In research: Soyuz TMA-16 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 TMA-16 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-16 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Crewed Soyuz missions, Human spaceflights to the International Space Station, Orbital space tourism flights, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soyuz TMA-16 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-16 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soyuz TMA-16 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-16 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soyuz TMA-16 in simple terms?

Why does Soyuz TMA-16 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 TMA-16?

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-16.