It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi on his second self-funded flight to the space station.

[2] Soyuz TMA-14 was docked to the space station for the remainder of the Expedition 20 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.

Roscosmos, in cooperation with other nations' space programs, invited children ages 6 to 15 to design and submit a patch for Soyuz TMA-14 from October 25, 2008 through December 25, 2008.

Anna Chibiskova, 12, from Moscow was chosen for first place and her artwork was incorporated into the design of the official Soyuz TMA-14 crew patch.

Kaitlin Riley, 12, from New York, U.S., and Stanislav Pyatkin, 11, from Uglegorsk, Russia, were selected as the second and third-place winners respectively by TMA-14 crew mates Gennady Padalka and Michael Barrett.