Soyuz TMA-03M was a spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). It launched on 21 December 2011 from Site One at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, carrying three members of Expedition 30 to the ISS. TMA-03M was the 112th flight of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, since the first in 1967, and the third flight of the modernised Soyuz-TMA-M version. The docking with the International Space Station took place at 19:19 Moscow Time on 23 December, three minutes ahead of schedule.
TMA-03M rollout in Baikonur
From left to right: Donald Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and André KuipersSoyuz programme (Crewed missions)← Soyuz TMA-22Soyuz TMA-04M →
The Soyuz TMA-03M crew members conduct their ceremonial tour of Red Square on 1 December 2011.
Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft seen at the launch pad on 19 December 2011.
Expedition 30 was the 30th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition's first three crew members – Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin – arrived on the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-22 on 16 November 2011, during the last phase of Expedition 29. Expedition 30 formally began on 21 November 2011, with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft. The expedition ended on 27 April 2012, as Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin departed from the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-22, marking the beginning of Expedition 31.
(l-r) Shkaplerov, Burbank, Ivanishin, Kuipers, Kononenko and PettitISS expeditions← Expedition 29Expedition 31 →
Comet Lovejoy, as seen from the ISS on 21 December 2011.