ISS Soyuz Mission Patches

The International Space Station (ISS) receives visitors from many countries. The Russian Soyuz program has served as a transportation system for astronauts and cosmonauts to the station since 2002. The Soyuz program uses their own mission patches for each of their missions to the station. The first Soyuz flight to the space station was TM-31, launched on October 31, 2000. It brought the first long-duration crew to the station. Known as Expedition 1, this crew consisted of two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut. On October, 2002, mission TMA-1 saw a new class of Soyuz spacecraft known as a TMA class. The Soyuz is a three seat spacecraft used to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. A Soyuz spacecraft also stays connected to the station at all times in case of an emergency evacuation. This vehicle attached to the station must be changed out every six months because of fuel limitations. Missions to replace this emergency vehicle has come to be known as "taxi flights".