It carried Russian cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev, Konstantin Kozeyev, and French cosmonaut Claudie Haigneré to the International Space Station.

Soyuz TM-33 is a Russian astronaut-transporting spacecraft that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 08:59 UT on 21 October 2001.

It carried two Russian and one French astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

This new crew spent eight days on the ISS, and returned on the older Soyuz TM-32 at 04:59 UT on 31 October.

The new Soyuz remained docked as a lifeboat craft for the then current crew of three (two Russian and one American) astronauts.