Soyuz TMA

The Soyuz TMA, the letters standing for Transport Modified Anthropometric, was a Soyuz crewed spacecraft built by Energia and used by Roscosmos for human spaceflight. It was a revision of the Soyuz introduced in 2001 and flew until 2012, after being superseded in 2010 by the Soyuz TMA-M. It looked identical to the earlier Soyuz TM on the outside but changed to meet requirements requested by NASA for serving the International Space Station. The most important difference was anthropometric: new adjustable crew couches that let shorter, taller, lighter and heavier passengers ride in the spacecraft. It also received improved parachute systems and a glass cockpit, a first for an expendable vehicle. Like every Soyuz it has an orbital module, a small reentry module and a service module with solar panels, and it carries up to three cosmonauts.