Soyuz TMA-17

Soyuz TMA-17 was launched on December 20, 2009 and transported three members of the ISS Expedition 22 crew to the station. TMA-17 is the 104th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz will most likely remain on board the space station for the remainder of the Expedition 22 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.

This mission marked the first Soyuz launch in the month of December for almost 19 years. The prior Soyuz launch in the month of December was Soyuz TM-11 on December 2, 1990.

This mission also included the last planned docking of a Soyuz at the nadir, or Earth-facing, port of the Zarya module. The Rassvet module was attached to Zarya's nadir port during the STS-132 mission.[4]

On May 12, 2010, the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft was relocated to the aft port of the Zvezda module.[5] At 9:23 a.m EDT, Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi temporarily undocked the spacecraft from the nadir port of Zarya and flew it to the aft port of the Zvezda service module. The docking occurred at 9:53 a.m EDT. After hooks and latches were engaged, the crew conducted leak checks, opened hatches around 12:40 p.m EDT and then re-entered the station through the service module.[6]

Soyuz TMA-17 capsule lands on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov was at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft as it undocked at 0:04 UTC on June 2, 2010 from the space station's Zvezda module.

The Soyuz TMA-17 crew capsule landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 3:25 UTC on 2 June 2010 wrapping up their stay aboard the space station.[7]

Prior to the landing on May 26, 2010, the orbital altitude of the ISS was lowered by 1.5 kilometers to 345 kilometers to ensure perfect conditions for the re-entry of the Soyuz TMA-17 into the Earth's atmosphere. The orbit of the ISS was adjusted using the four engines on board the Progress M-05M spacecraft.[8]

Soyuz TMA-17 firing its retro-rockets on landing

• Image of tower retraction.