Russian company RSC Energia (a part of State Corporation Roscosmos) is handing over to the Science Museum (London, UK) the descent vehicle of the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft, in which Timothy Peake, the first UK astronaut onboard the ISS made his flight.

The exhibit is the original descent vehicle of Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft as it was at the time of landing, with some pieces of flight equipment replaced with their mockups. The preparations were performed under a contract that had been concluded between the Corporation and the supervisory board of the Science Museum.

The ceremony of signing delivery and acceptance certificates was held on December 2, 2016 at RSC Energia.

General Director of Energia Corporation of Russia Vladimir Solntsev: “We are proud of the fact that a spacecraft that had been built at our Corporation and flew into orbit will now take its rightful place in one of the most famous museums of the world. I’m certain that this distinctive symbol of Russia will become one of the key items on display at the museum, and the exhibit containing it will become one of the most visited”.

Director of the Science Museum Group Ian Blatchford: “Russia was and remains the doubtless leader in space, especially in the field of long-duration space missions. It’s a great honor for me to accept into the collection of the Science Museum the capsule of the Russian manned spacecraft, which delivered a UK astronaut Tim Peake to the ISS. For the museum this is an incredible opportunity to tell the amazing story of Russian achievements in the UK”.

He noted that for Great Britain the space mission of Timothy Peake was a truly historic event, and thanked Energia for the opportunity to get the British public better acquainted with Russian achievements in space.

The acquisition of the descent vehicle of the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19M continues the work of the Museum which began with the exhibition project Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age. The exhibition, which became the most successful exhibition in the history of the Science Museum and attracted 140 thousand visitors in Great Britain, opened in Moscow at VDNKh and will be on till January 2017.

The spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19M was launched to the International Space Station in December 2015. The crew consisted of the spacecraft commander, a Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, a NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, and a British astronaut representing ESA Timothy Peake. On June 18, 2016 the descent vehicle of the spacecraft made a successful landing in Kazakhstan.

The descent vehicle of Soyuz TMA-19M will become the first manned spacecraft that had been into space in the national collection of space hardware of Great Britain.

The manned transportation spacecraft of the new series Soyuz TMA-M developed and built by RSC Energia is an upgraded version of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft. It is equipped with new devices for the motion control and navigation system and an improved onboard measurement system. All the devices are built around state-of-the-art electronic components and run the latest software. The upgrade made it possible to reduce the mass of the onboard equipment and thus enhance the capability to deliver payload to orbit. The spacecraft is designed to deliver the crews of up to three and their accompanying cargoes to the International Space Station, as well as to return them to Earth.