ISS
NORAD ID: 34669
Int'l Code: 2009-015A
Launch date: March 26, 2009
Source: Commonwealth of Independent States (former USSR) (CIS)
Decay date: 2009-10-11
Comments: With Expedition 19 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer-physician Michael Barratt at the controls, the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft blasted off from site 254—Yuri Gagarin's launch pad—at 7:49:18 a.m. EDT. Joining them for the two-day trip to the station was Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-born U.S. software developer making his second multi-million-dollar visit to the lab complex. Padalka and Barratt will join Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata aboard the station and replace Expedition 18 commander Mike Fincke and flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, who are in the final days of a five-and-a-half-month tour of duty. Fincke, Lonchakov and Simonyi will return to Earth April 7 aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft that carried the outgoing station fliers into orbit last October. Wakata, Japan's first long-duration station crew member, hitched a ride to the outpost aboard Discovery. He replaced outgoing flight engineer Sandra Magnus, who is returning to Earth aboard the shuttle after a four-month stay in space.
Two Line Element Set (TLE):
Source: AFSPC
NASA's NSSDC Master Catalog entry for SOYUZ-TMA 14
