Recovery Antenna for Soyuz TMA-19M descent module

Recovery Antenna for Soyuz TMA-19M descent module, S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Public Corporation “Energia”, Russia, 2015. This antenna pops out just as the descent module lands and is used as a location beacon in case of landing off course.

The Russian made Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is the first flown, human-rated spacecraft to be acquired by the United Kingdom. This is the actual spacecraft that took astronauts Yuri Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Britain’s Tim Peake up to the ISS in 2015 and then returned them safely to the Earth the following year. It was Peake’s first spaceflight, Kopra’s 2nd and Yuri Malenchenko’s 5th. It was the first time two ‘Tims’ had shared a space mission! Their spacecraft flew through Earth’s atmosphere at 17,000 miles per hour and temperatures of more than 1500°C, leaving its outer surface melted and charred.

Spaceflight is extremely dangerous; the first manned Soyuz mission ended in tragedy when it crashed to Earth killing cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. But Soyuz is now a stalwart of human spaceflight.

It was designed in the early 1960s as a three-person replacement to the single seater Vostok. Soyuz (‘union’ in Russian), unlike its predecessor, would be capable of subtle manoeuvring, rendezvousing and docking