Gregory Olsen ISS Visiting Mission

Gregory Olsen's ISS visiting mission was a short-duration private spaceflight arranged through Space Adventures during the Soyuz TMA-7 / Expedition 12 handover period. Olsen launched from Baikonur Site 1/5 on October 1, 2005 aboard Soyuz TMA-7 with Valeri Tokarev and William McArthur, docked with the International Space Station on October 3, and spent about eight days aboard the station before returning to Earth on Soyuz TMA-6 on October 11. This standalone record captures Olsen's visiting flight without changing the Expedition 12 resident-crew record. Sources list Olsen as a spaceflight participant rather than an expedition flight engineer, and his work on orbit included student outreach by amateur radio and research activity connected with the European Space Agency. Spacefacts gives his total flight time as 9 days, 21 hours, and 15 minutes.