Expedition 27/28
In October 2008 Samokutyayev was assigned to the prime crew of the 27th long duration expedition to the space station. On 7 October 2009 his assignment was confirmed by NASA press release No. 09-233.
Samokutyayev flew into space for the first time as a Flight Engineer for the ISS long duration Expedition 27/28 missions. The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft carrying Samokutyayev, cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko and NASA astronaut Ron Garan launched on schedule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome's Gagarin's Start launch pad, at 23:18:20 UTC on April 4, 2011. Samokutyayev served as Commander of Soyuz TMA-21. The launch of Soyuz TMA-21 was devoted to the 50th anniversary of the first space mission by Yuri Gagarin. Samokutyayev carried a small stuffed dog given to him by his daughter. Hanging in front of the crew, live NASA TV launch footage showed that the dog begun to float as the spacecraft soared skywards, an indication of the weightlessness of space.
After two days of solo flight, the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on April 6 at 23:09 UTC.
Samokutyayev concluded his 164 day stay aboard the Space Station, when his spaceship, Soyuz TMA-21 undocked from the Russian segment's Poisk module at 00:38 UTC on 16 September. On the same day, the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule carrying Samokutyayev, Borisenko and Ron Garan touched down (3:59:39 UTC) at 93 miles southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
Read more about this topic: Aleksandr Samokutyayev
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“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.”
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