ISS: Expedition 12

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 55 km northeast of Arkalyk.

The ISS expedition 12 was called a "caretaker" crew. Following a two day solo flight the Soyuz docked to ISS on 03.10.2005. Tokarev and McArthur replaced the expedition 11 crew.

First EVA on 07.11.2005 (5h 22m) to install a television camera on the station's part truss, needed for future assembly work, to remove the 5 year old FPP experiment (Floating Potential Probe) from the top of the P6 truss and to remove and replace other equipment. On 18.11.2005 the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft was relocated from the Pirs docking port to the Nadir Docking port of the Zarya module. That was necessary to start the second EVA from out the the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.

Second EVA on 03.02.2006 (5h 43m) to deploy SuitSat, an unneeded Russian spacesuit with an amateur radio transmitter. The SuitSat provided recorded greetings in six languages to ham radio operators for about two orbits of the Earth before it stopped transmitting, perhaps due to its batteries failing in the cold environment of space. They then removed a grapple fixture adapter for the Strela crane to the PMA-3 on the Unity module. Then they tried to securely install a safety bolt in a contingency cutting device for one of two cables that provide power, data and video to the Mobile Transporter rail car, but this failed. Finally they retrieved an experiment to study the effect of the space environment on microorganisms from the Russian Pirs airlock and photographed the exterior of Zvezda.

On 20.03.2006 the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft was relocated again, now from the Zarya module to the Zvezda port. Additional work during this mission included different research programs as Foot-Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight experiment (FOOT), Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope for the International Space Station (PROMISS-4), Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, but also “housekeeping”, repairing work, unload and reload of Progress freighters and more.

McArthur and Tokarev returned to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft, together with crewmate, Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes.