Soyuz TM-32

Soyuz TM-32 launched from Baikonur Site 1/5 on April 28, 2001 with commander Talgat Musabayev, flight engineer Yuri Baturin, and U.S. spaceflight participant Dennis Tito. The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on April 30 as the first ISS taxi-crew mission, allowing the station's Soyuz lifeboat to be exchanged while the Expedition 2 crew continued resident operations. The taxi crew returned to Earth on Soyuz TM-31 on May 6, 2001 after 7 days, 22 hours, and 4 minutes in space. Soyuz TM-32 stayed attached to the ISS as the replacement rescue spacecraft and later landed without the launch crew on October 31, 2001. The flight is historically important because it carried Tito, the first self-funded private citizen to visit the ISS, and showed how short-duration commercial participants could be carried alongside professional Soyuz crews.