On Sept. 2, thee Soyuz TMA-22 prime and backup crews had their second and last day of the final exams in Star City.
Dressed in their Sokol spacesuits, crew members Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and Daniel Burbank reported their readiness to the examination committee, after which Soyuz commander Shkaplerov selected an envelope containing the problems that would be thrown at them during the test in the Soyuz simulator.
Before entering the simulator, the crew answered questions from journalists. Among the questions was what the most difficult issue was that they faced the first day. Ivanishin jokingly replied: "The most difficult thing for us was to understand why it took such such a long time for the examination committee to discuss our exam."
The 'anomalies' the crew faced during the exam inside the Soyuz simulator were: a problem during separation from the Soyuz rocket; disruption of automatic control when using the orbital coordinate system; failure of automatic approach at a distance of 5 km; leakage in the pneumatic system of the combined propulsion system during undocking; crash of on-board computer during descent (requiring a transition to manual mode); and failure of the sensor of angular velocity during the atmospheric portion of the descent.
The backup crew of Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and Joe Acaba began their exams in the International Space Station (ISS) simulator. Before entering the Zvezda module, the crew posed for traditional photography. The 'anomalies' which the crew had to solve were: a problem with the main transmitter connection; a problem with oxygen heneration system (pressure lower than normal); a leak in the waste collection system (toilet); an overflow in the waste collection system; and a leake in the Russian segment of the ISS.
Upon completion of the comprehensive exam, Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov thanked the crew for the good and efficient work and thanked the trainers of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center for the excellent test.
The prime crew was rated 5.0 (out of 5), with the back-up crew obtaining a 4.8 result.