Soyuz TMA-5 launch Poster Spaceship

Soyuz TMA-5 Rocket This is a photograph of the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 14, 2004, carrying astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA International Space Station (ISS) science officer, cosmonaut Salizhan S. Sharipov, Russia's Federal Space Agency flight engineer and Soyuz commander, and Russian Space Forces cosmonaut Yuri Shargin to the ISS. The crew docked at the Station on October 16, and Chiao and Sharipov replaced the then current Station crewmembers, cosmonaut Gennady I. Padalka, Expedition 9 commander, and astronaut Edward M. (Mike) Fincke, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, who returned to Earth October 24 with Shargin. Soyuz [saˈjus]) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program. The first unmanned Soyuz mission was launched November 28, 1966; the first Soyuz mission with a crew (Soyuz 1) was launched April 23, 1967, but the cosmonaut on board died during the flight's crash-landing. The first Soyuz flight which the crew survived (Soyuz 3) was launched October 26, 1968. Currently, the Soyuz spacecraft family is still in service and has launched more human spaceflight missions than any other platform. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched by the Soyuz launch vehicle, as part of the Soyuz program and in the later missions as part of the Zond program. They were later used to carry cosmonauts to and from Salyut and later Mir Soviet space stations, and are now used for transport to and from the International Space Station.