Soyuz TMA-10 was a human spaceflight mission using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began at 17:31:09 UTC on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. Soyuz TMA-10 brought to the station two members of ISS Expedition 15 crew, along with one spaceflight participant. It remained at the space station as an escape craft until it was replaced by Soyuz TMA-11 in October 2007.

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Soyuz TMA-10

Operator	Roskosmos
COSPAR ID	2007-008A
SATCAT no.	31100
Mission duration	196 days, 17 hours
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TMA 11F732
Manufacturer	RKK Energia
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Oleg V. Kotov Fyodor Yurchikhin
Launching	Charles Simonyi
Landing	Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
Callsign	Pulsar
Start of mission
Launch date	April 7, 2007, 17:31:09 (2007-04-07UTC17:31:09Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-FG
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	October 21, 2007, 10:36 (2007-10-21UTC10:37Z) UTC
Landing site	west of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Zarya nadir
Docking date	9 April 2007 19:10 UTC
Undocking date	27 September 2007 20:20 UTC
Time docked	171d 1h 10m
Docking with ISS (Relocation)
Docking port	Zvezda aft
Docking date	27 September 2007 20:47 UTC
Undocking date	21 October 2007 07:14 UTC
Time docked	23d 10h 27m
From left to right: Charles Simonyi, Oleg Kotov, Fyodor Yurchikhin Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz TMA-11 →

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• Docked to ISS: 9 April 2007, 19:10 UTC (to nadir port of Zarya)
• Undocking from ISS: 27 September 2007 20:20 UTC (from nadir port of Zarya)
• Docking to ISS: 27 September 2007 20:47 UTC (to aft port of Zvezda)
• Undocking from ISS: 21 October 2007 07:14 UTC (from aft port of Zvezda)

Soyuz TMA-10 docked to the ISS on April 9, 2007 at 22:10 UTC, following two days of free flight. Its two Russian crew members remained on the station until the spacecraft's return to Earth in October 2007. Spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-9 on April 21, following eleven days of ISS handover operations.

TMA-10 undocked from the ISS at 07:14 UTC on October 21, and deorbit occurred at 09:47. During atmospheric re-entry, the spacecraft transitioned to a ballistic reentry, resulting in it landing west of Arkalyk, approximately 340 km (210 mi) northwest of the intended Kazakhstan landing site.^[2] The trajectory was reported by the crew as soon as they came out of the communications blackout caused by plasma surrounding the spacecraft. (A ballistic trajectory is a backup re-entry mode that takes over if something fails during normal re-entry.) A Commission of Inquiry determined that the ballistic re-entry was caused by damage to a cable in the spacecraft's control panel, which connected to the control panel with the Soyuz descent equipment.^[3] Landing occurred at 10:36 GMT.^[4] A ballistic trajectory entry had happened previously, with the Soyuz TMA-1 mission that returned Expedition 6.^[2] The information about the failure of a connector in service panel was faulty. In actuality, the Service module (PAO) had failed to separate from the re-entry module (SA), and the ship had entered the atmosphere with the opposite orientation. Explosive bolts in connection struts between the Re-entry module and the Service module had failed to explode. The heat had melted the failed struts and the re-entry module had separated from the service module - the changed trajectory of the ship had caused the switch to a ballistic emergency landing. The same situation had happened during the Soyuz 5 mission in 1969. The Soyuz re-entry module was, and still is, protected on all sides with thermal insulation, so the struts melted before the crew entry hatch was damaged or destroyed, thus saving the crew. The Russians kept the failure of the Soyuz TMA-10 a secret until it happened again on the Soyuz TMA-11 with a NASA astronaut on board. This infuriated NASA (the Commission of Inquiry had lied to them)^{[citation needed]} and this led to further investigation as well as special EVA activity on the ISS to check the docked Soyuz TMA-12 and its explosive bolts in their connection struts.