1.
International Space Station
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The International Space Station is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest man-made body in space, the ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, the ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft and it completes 15.54 orbits per day. The ISS is the space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz. The station has continuously occupied for 16 years and 156 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous presence in low Earth orbit. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different nations, Soyuz has very limited downmass capability. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, the ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment, which is shared by many nations. As of January 2014, the American portion of ISS is being funded until 2024, Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024 but has proposed using elements of the Russian Orbital Segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK. On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. NASA later issued a statement expressing thanks for Russias interest in future co-operation in space exploration. According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in low Earth orbit. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given roles of serving commercial, diplomatic. The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research, the ISS simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff
2.
Soyuz TMA-2
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Soyuz TMA-2 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS 2003-04-28 and undocked 2003-10-27. Soyuz TMA-2 was the flight for the TMA modification of the Soyuz spacecraft. Alexander Kaleri and Michael Foale were assigned as the backup crew, mass,7136 kg Perigee,200 km Apogee,250 km Inclination,51. 7° Period,88. During his stay on the station, Malenchenko became the first person to get married in space and his bride was in Texas where long distance marriages are legal. The spacecraft returned to Earth on October 28, with both the Expedition 7 crew as well as Pedro Duque on board, Duque was launched with Soyuz TMA-3 and spent only one week on board of the ISS. RussianSpaceWeb. com, Soyuz TMA-2 SpaceRef. com, Soyuz TMA-2/6S Lands On Target
3.
Yuri Malenchenko
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Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko is a retired Russian cosmonaut. As of June 2016, Malenchenko ranks second for time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station. Malenchenko was born in Khrushchev, Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukrainian SSR and he and his wife Ekaterina Dmitrieva have one child. Malenchenko graduated from the Kharkiv Military Aviation School in 1983, and attended the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, after graduation from the Military Aviation School, he served as a pilot, senior pilot and multi-ship flight lead from 1983 till 1987 in the Odessa Region. In 1987 he was selected as a cosmonaut, and arrived at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, from December 1987 to June 1989 Malenchenko underwent a course of general space training. After completion of the course, he was qualified as a test-cosmonaut, between September 1989 to December 1993 he was taking advanced training courses in preparation for spaceflight. In January–July,1993 Malenchenko trained as commander of the Mir-14 reserve crew and he completed training as a backup commander of the Mir-15 crew from July 1993 to January 1994. From February to June 1994 Malenchenko trained for the Mir-16 mission, on July 1,1994, Malenchenko and Talgat Musabayev lifted off to space on board the Soyuz TM-19 spacecraft with Malenchenko in command of the Soyuz. Following a two-day solo flight the Soyuz docked with Mir on July 3,1994, main goal of the mission was the partly exchange of the resident crew. Malenchenko, Musabayev and cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov became the 16th resident Mir crew, the crew conducted medical experiments and experiments in materials science. There were many problems during the mission, which ended with the first successful manual docking of a Progress supply ship at Mir by Malenchenko. On November 4,1994, Malenchenko, Musabayev and Ulf Merbold returned to Earth aboard their Soyuz capsule after landing 88 km northeast of Arkalyk, aboard Soyuz TM-19 and Mir complex Malenchenko spent 125 days,22 hours,53 minutes in space. Malenchenko served as a mission specialist for STS-106, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on September 8,2000. On flight day two, Atlantis completed a successful rendezvous and docking with the ISS, the objectives of the mission were to bring supplies to the International Space Station and to prepare the Zvezda Service Module for the arrival of the first resident crew. After circling the globe for 186 orbits, Atlantis landed on September 19,2000, at Runway 15, the mission lasted 11 days,19 hours and 12 minutes. Malenchenko with astronaut Edward Lu lifted on board the Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 26,2003, the spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 28,2003. Malenchenko served as the Soyuz commander, and after docking with the ISS they exchanged with the resident crew on board ISS and became the station crew. He was the commander of the Expedition 7, and during his stay on the station, Soyuz TMA-2 returned to Earth on October 28, with both the Expedition 7 crew as well as Pedro Duque on board
4.
Ed Lu
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Edward Tsang Ed Lu is an American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He flew on two Space Shuttle flights, and made a stay aboard the International Space Station. In 2007, Lu retired from NASA to become the manager of Googles Advanced Projects Team. In 2002, while still at NASA, Lu co-founded the B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes, as of 2014, he is currently its chief executive officer. Raised in Webster, New York, to a Chinese-American family, Lu attended R. L. Thomas High School, where he was a member of the wrestling team and graduated in 1980. Later, Lu earned a degree in engineering from Cornell University where he lettered in wrestling. He then received a degree in applied physics from Stanford University in 1989. Lu is a member of the Psi chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity at Cornell, Lu became a specialist in solar physics and did postdoctoral work at the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Hawaii before being selected for the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1994. Lu flew on shuttle missions STS-84 in 1997 and STS-106 in 2000. Having been flight engineer on Soyuz TMA-2, Lu spent six months in space in 2003 as part of ISS Expedition 7 and he had demonstrated the difficulty of playing the piano instrument in space during a live in-orbit interview with CBS News and NASA TV video feed. Also on this ISS mission on 15 October 2003, Lu communicated with the crewman of Chinas first manned mission into space, Yang Liwei, Lu congratulated the Chinese for the achievement and said in Putonghua, Welcome to space. Malenchenko added, I love to have somebody else in space instead of me, while still employed at NASA, Lu co-founded the B612 Foundation along with former astronaut Rusty Schweickart and scientists Clark Chapman and Piet Hut. It has conducted two lines of related research to detect asteroids that could one day strike the Earth. The foundations current goal is to design and build a privately financed asteroid-finding space telescope, Sentinel, the Sentinels infrared telescope, once parked in an orbit similar to that of Venus, will help identify asteroids and other near-Earth objects that pose a risk of collision with Earth. While on the ISS, Lu teamed up with magician James Randi to perform a trick in outer space. Randi asked Lu to select a card from the middle of a brand new freshly shuffled deck of cards, turn it around, then place the deck of cards back into its box then take them out again and fan the cards to the camera. This same procedure was being done by Randi back on Earth at the JREF headquarters in front of witnesses from the Miami Herald, both Randi and Lu successfully selected the same card, the seven of diamonds. The remaining cards were jettisoned for weight reasons before returning to Earth, the two cards complete with autographs are framed for public view at the JREF offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL
5.
Expedition 6
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Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station. It was the last three-man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121, the crew performed two spacewalks in support of maintenance and assembly of the International Space Station. Perigee,384 km Apogee,396 km Inclination,51. 6° Period,92 min The Stations sixth crew was launched to the Station aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-113 in November 2002. The mission was expected to be a mission that was to end in March 2003 when Atlantis STS-114 was to fly to the Station with the Expedition 7 crew. The Columbia disaster, which occurred during the mission on 1 Feb.2003, and resulted in the suspension of shuttle flights, changed plans. They returned to earth on Soyuz TMA-1 and a reduced Expedition 7 crew with just two members was delivered to the ISS on Soyuz TMA-2, the Space Shuttle was expected to be grounded for up to two years. Ongoing logistical support for the ISS would have to be carried out by Soyuz, russian Mission Control reported at approximately 2,45 a. m.4 May that the support helicopters reached the crew and all three astronauts were in good health. The capsule appeared to touch down about 276 miles from its landing zone. Originally scheduled to fly on the Expedition 6 Crew in place of Don Pettit was Donald A. Thomas, the Expedition Six crew conducted two spacewalks during its stay at the International Space Station. Both were based out of the Quest Airlock, and the spacewalkers used U. S. spacesuits, the crew was originally scheduled to conduct only one spacewalk, but a second was added to the manifest for 8 April in order to prepare for future assembly missions. The two Expedition Six extravehicular activities bring the number of spacewalks conducted in support of ISS assembly. Of those 51 EVAs, Twenty-six have been based out of the station, bowersox and Pettit accumulated 13 hours and 17 minutes of spacewalking time at the station. Expedition 6 is the subject of the book Too Far From Home, A Story of Life and Death in Space, a dramatised account of Expedition 6 is told in Expedition 6, a play by actor/playwright Bill Pullman. The play was scheduled to run at San Franciscos Magic Theater through 7 October 2007 and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
6.
Expedition 8
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Expedition 8 was the eighth expedition to the International Space Station. Perigee,384 km Apogee,396 km Inclination,51, at the time of docking, both spacecraft orbited the Earth above Russia. Once the Expedition 7 crew undocked, Foale and Kaleri settled down to work, beginning a more than six-month stint focused on Station operations and maintenance. The new station crew, along with Duque, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 05,38,03 UTC, the Expedition 8 crew conducted the first two-person spacewalk at the International Space Station. Unlike previous spacewalks conducted by ISS crews, there was not a crewmember inside the Station as the spacewalkers worked outside, the spacewalk was based out of the Pirs docking compartment, the spacewalkers wore Russian Orlan space suits. This was the 52nd spacewalk devoted to Space Station assembly, operations and maintenance and it was the 27th based out of the Station, bringing the total to 155 hours and 17 minutes. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
7.
Roscosmos
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The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of Russia and general aerospace research. The Corporation was established on the basis of the now-defunct Federal Space Agency on December 28,2015, Roscosmos was previously known as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. The headquarters of Roscosmos are located in Moscow, while the main Mission Control space center is located in the city of Korolev. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center is in Star City, the Launch facilities used are Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Vostochny Cosmodrome being built in the Russian Far East in Amur Oblast. The current Director since January 2015 is Igor Komarov, in 2015 the Russian government merged Roscosmos with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, the re-nationalized Russian space industry, to create the Roscosmos State Corporation. The Soviet space program did not have central executive agencies, instead, its organizational architecture was multi-centered, it was the design bureaus and the council of designers that had the most say, not the political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the separation of Russia from the Soviet Union was therefore a new development, Russian Space Agency was formed on February 25,1992, by a decree of President Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin. In the early years, the agency suffered from lack of authority as the design bureaus fought to protect their own spheres of operation. For example, the decision to keep Mir in operation beyond 1999 was not taken by the agency, instead, another example is that the decision to develop the new Angara rocket was rather a function of Khrunichevs ability to attract resources than a conscious long-term decision by the agency. The 1990s saw serious financial problems because of decreased cash flow and this resulted in Roscosmos leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. In March 2004, director Yuri Koptev was replaced by Anatoly Perminov, the Russian economy boomed throughout 2005 from high prices for exports, such as oil and gas, the outlook for future funding in 2006 appeared more favorable. The budget for 2006 was as high as 25 billion rubles, under the current 10-year budget approved, the budget of the Space Agency shall increase 5–10% per year, providing the space agency with a constant influx of money. In addition to the budget, Roscosmos plans to have over 130 billion rubles flowing into its budget by other means, such as industry investments and it is around the time US-based The Planetary Society entered a partnership with Roscosmos. In 2011, the government spent 115 billion rubles in the space programs. The proposed project core budget for 2013 to be around 128.3 billion rubles, the budget for the whole space program is,169.8 billion rubles. By 2015, the amount of the budget can be increased to 199.2 billion rubles, priorities of the Russian space program include the new Angara rocket family and development of new communications, navigation and remote Earth sensing spacecraft. The GLONASS global navigation system has for many years been one of the top priorities and has been given its own budget line in the federal space budget
8.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
9.
Aleksandr Kaleri
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Aleksandr Yuriyevich Sasha Kaleri is a Russian cosmonaut and veteran of extended stays on the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station. Kaleri has recently been in space aboard the ISS serving as an engineer for the long duration Expedition 25/26 missions. He has spent the third-longest time in space of any person, Kaleri is married to the former Svetlana L. Nosova. They have a son, Oleg Aleksandrovich Kaleri, born in 1996, Kaleris mother, Antonina Petrovna Kaleri, resides in Sevastopol, Crimea, and his father, Yuri Borisovich Kaleri, is deceased. Kaleri enjoys running, reading and gardening, in 1979, Kaleri graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, as a specialist in Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Control. In 1983, he completed studies at the same institute as a specialist in the field of Mechanics of Fluids. In 1979, he was hired by the Energia Corporation and worked on the Mir space station and he participated in development of design and engineering documentation, full-scale tests of the Mir. Kaleri was selected as the Energia RSC cosmonaut candidate in April 1984, between 1985 and 1986, he completed basic training and evaluation at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1987 he was qualified for assignment as a test cosmonaut. Kaleri took a course for a spaceflight aboard the Mir orbital station as a backup crew flight engineer of the Mir-3 mission from 1 April to 9 December 1987. He took a course for a spaceflight aboard the Mir as a backup crew flight engineer of the Mir-9 mission from January to April 1991. From 8 October 1991 to 25 February 1992, Kaleri was training as a primary crew flight engineer for the Mir-11 mission, Kaleri has participated in three extended missions aboard the Mir Space Station. In 1992, he participated in a 145-day flight aboard the Soyuz-TM-14 spacecraft, between 17 August 1996 to 2 March 1997, Kaleri spent 197-days in space aboard the Soyuz-TM-24 spacecraft and the Mir as the Mir-22 mission flight engineer. In 2000, Kaleri performed his third spaceflight aboard the Soyuz-TM-30 spacecraft, in 2003, he first flew to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Michael Foale on his fourth spaceflight. Kaleri served as a Flight Engineer on Expedition 8 and spent 194 days in space from 18 October 2003 to 30 April 2004, the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft carrying Kaleri, Foale and ESA astronaut André Kuipers successfully landed in Kazakhstan at 00,11 GMT on 30 April 2004. The landing site was located some 60 kilometers northeast of the town of Arkalyk and he served as the Soyuz commander. The mission marked Kaleris fifth flight into space and he arrived at the ISS after the Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the space station at 00,01 UTC on 10 October 2010. He remained in the ISS till March 2011, Kaleri has participated in five spacewalks and has accumulated 23 EVA hours
10.
Apsis
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An apsis is an extreme point in an objects orbit. The word comes via Latin from Greek and is cognate with apse, for elliptic orbits about a larger body, there are two apsides, named with the prefixes peri- and ap-, or apo- added to a reference to the thing being orbited. For a body orbiting the Sun, the point of least distance is the perihelion, the terms become periastron and apastron when discussing orbits around other stars. For any satellite of Earth including the Moon the point of least distance is the perigee, for objects in Lunar orbit, the point of least distance is the pericynthion and the greatest distance the apocynthion. For any orbits around a center of mass, there are the terms pericenter and apocenter, periapsis and apoapsis are equivalent alternatives. A straight line connecting the pericenter and apocenter is the line of apsides and this is the major axis of the ellipse, its greatest diameter. For a two-body system the center of mass of the lies on this line at one of the two foci of the ellipse. When one body is larger than the other it may be taken to be at this focus. Historically, in systems, apsides were measured from the center of the Earth. In orbital mechanics, the apsis technically refers to the distance measured between the centers of mass of the central and orbiting body. However, in the case of spacecraft, the family of terms are used to refer to the orbital altitude of the spacecraft from the surface of the central body. The arithmetic mean of the two limiting distances is the length of the axis a. The geometric mean of the two distances is the length of the semi-minor axis b, the geometric mean of the two limiting speeds is −2 ε = μ a which is the speed of a body in a circular orbit whose radius is a. The words pericenter and apocenter are often seen, although periapsis/apoapsis are preferred in technical usage, various related terms are used for other celestial objects. The -gee, -helion and -astron and -galacticon forms are used in the astronomical literature when referring to the Earth, Sun, stars. The suffix -jove is occasionally used for Jupiter, while -saturnium has very rarely used in the last 50 years for Saturn. The -gee form is used as a generic closest approach to planet term instead of specifically applying to the Earth. During the Apollo program, the terms pericynthion and apocynthion were used when referring to the Moon, regarding black holes, the term peri/apomelasma was used by physicist Geoffrey A. Landis in 1998 before peri/aponigricon appeared in the scientific literature in 2002
11.
Orbital inclination
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Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an objects orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the equator, the plane of the orbit is the same as the Earths equatorial plane. The general case is that the orbit is tilted, it spends half an orbit over the northern hemisphere. If the orbit swung between 20° north latitude and 20° south latitude, then its orbital inclination would be 20°, the inclination is one of the six orbital elements describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit. It is the angle between the plane and the plane of reference, normally stated in degrees. For a satellite orbiting a planet, the plane of reference is usually the plane containing the planets equator, for planets in the Solar System, the plane of reference is usually the ecliptic, the plane in which the Earth orbits the Sun. This reference plane is most practical for Earth-based observers, therefore, Earths inclination is, by definition, zero. Inclination could instead be measured with respect to another plane, such as the Suns equator or the invariable plane, the inclination of orbits of natural or artificial satellites is measured relative to the equatorial plane of the body they orbit, if they orbit sufficiently closely. The equatorial plane is the perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the central body. An inclination of 30° could also be described using an angle of 150°, the convention is that the normal orbit is prograde, an orbit in the same direction as the planet rotates. Inclinations greater than 90° describe retrograde orbits, thus, An inclination of 0° means the orbiting body has a prograde orbit in the planets equatorial plane. An inclination greater than 0° and less than 90° also describe prograde orbits, an inclination of 63. 4° is often called a critical inclination, when describing artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, because they have zero apogee drift. An inclination of exactly 90° is an orbit, in which the spacecraft passes over the north and south poles of the planet. An inclination greater than 90° and less than 180° is a retrograde orbit, an inclination of exactly 180° is a retrograde equatorial orbit. For gas giants, the orbits of moons tend to be aligned with the giant planets equator, the inclination of exoplanets or members of multiple stars is the angle of the plane of the orbit relative to the plane perpendicular to the line-of-sight from Earth to the object. An inclination of 0° is an orbit, meaning the plane of its orbit is parallel to the sky. An inclination of 90° is an orbit, meaning the plane of its orbit is perpendicular to the sky
12.
Space Shuttle
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The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development, the first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, the Shuttle fleets total mission time was 1322 days,19 hours,21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle, a pair of solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OVs three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, at the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 for use in Approach, four fully operational orbiters were initially built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, the Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantiss final flight on July 21,2011. Nixons post-Apollo NASA budgeting withdrew support of all components except the Shuttle. The vehicle consisted of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The system was retired from service in 2011 after 135 missions, the program ended after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21,2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, the first orbiter vehicle, named Enterprise, was built for the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase and lacked engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these and it was used for orbital space missions by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Germany. The United States funded Shuttle development and operations except for the Spacelab modules used on D1, sL-J was partially funded by Japan
13.
European Space Agency
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The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states, dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of about 2,000. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching, after World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. The meeting was attended by representatives from eight countries, including Harrie Massey. The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned with developing a system, ELDO, and the precursor of the European Space Agency. The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962, from 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites. ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, ESA has 10 founding member states, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, during this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, ESA joined NASA in the IUE, the worlds first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses. Recent scientific missions in co-operation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, as the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward, the successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6 is already in the definition stage and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s. The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances led to decisions to rely more on itself, a 2011 press issue thus stated, Russia is ESAs first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006 and this is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be more important in the future. ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways, For the general public the various fields of work are described as Activities, Member states participate to varying degrees in the mandatory and optional space programmes
14.
Pedro Duque
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Pedro Duque Duque is a Spanish astronaut and a veteran of two space missions. Duque earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1986 and he worked for GMV and for the European Space Agency for six years before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1992. Duque underwent training in both Russia and the United States and his first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-95, during which Duque supervised ESA experimental modules. In October 2003, Duque visited the International Space Station for several days during a crew changeover, the scientific program of this visit was called by ESA/Spain Misión Cervantes. He worked at the UPM, in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, currently he is back as an astronaut of ESA, and leads the Flight Operations Office near Munich. List of astronauts List of Hispanic astronauts ESA profile page NASA Biography Spacefacts biography of Pedro Duque Events and Conferences Telescope Hosting site in Nerpio, Spain
15.
Progress M1-10
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Progress M1-10, identified by NASA as Progress 11 or 11P, was a Progress spacecraft used to resupply the International Space Station. It was a Progress-M1 11F615A55 spacecraft, with the serial number 259, Progress M1-10 was launched by a Soyuz-U carrier rocket from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Launch occurred at 10,34 GMT on 8 June 2003, the spacecraft docked with the Pirs module at 11,14,53 GMT on 11 June. It remained docked for three months before undocking at 19,41,44 GMT on 4 September to make way for Soyuz TMA-3, following undocking, it remained in orbit for a month, conducting an earth observation mission. It was deorbited at 11,26 GMT on 3 October, burning up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, Progress M1-10 carried supplies to the International Space Station, including food, water and oxygen for the crew and equipment for conducting scientific research. List of Progress flights List of unmanned spaceflights to the ISS
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Progress M-48
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Progress M-48, identified by NASA as Progress 12 or 12P, was a Progress spacecraft used to resupply the International Space Station. It was a Progress-M 11F615A55 spacecraft, with the serial number 248, Progress M-48 was launched by a Soyuz-U carrier rocket from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Launch occurred at 01,47,59 GMT on 29 August 2003, the spacecraft docked with the Aft port of the Zvezda module at 03,40,45 GMT on 31 August. It remained docked for five months before undocking at 08,35,56 GMT on 28 January 2004 to make way for Progress M1-11 and it was deorbited at 13,11 GMT on the same day. The spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, Progress M-48 carried supplies to the International Space Station, including food, water and oxygen for the crew and equipment for conducting scientific research. List of Progress flights List of unmanned spaceflights to the ISS
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Long March (rocket family)
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A Long March rocket or Changzheng rocket in Chinese pinyin is any rocket in a family of expendable launch systems operated by the Peoples Republic of China. Development and design falls under the auspices of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, in English, the rockets are abbreviated as LM- for export and CZ- within China, as Chang Zheng means Long March in Chinese pinyin. The rockets are named after the Long March of Chinese communist history, China launched its first satellite, known as Dong Fang Hong 1, into Earth orbit on its Long March space rocket on April 24,1970, becoming the fifth nation to achieve independent launch capability. Early launches had an inconsistent record, focusing on launching of Chinese satellites, starting in 1990, the Long March rocket entered the international market. However, several setbacks occurred during the early 1990s, on January 26,1995, a Long March 2E rocket veered off course two seconds after take-off from Xichang space center and exploded, killing at least six on the ground. On February 14,1996, a failure occurred during the launch of Intelsat 708, The rocket veered severely off course immediately after clearing the launch tower. Following the disaster, foreign media were sequestered in a bunker for five hours while, some have alleged, officials later blamed the failure on an unexpected gust of wind Xinhua News Agency initially reported 6 deaths and 57 injuries. In the aftermath of the explosion, U. S. satellite makers shared information that allowed the Chinese to determine that the problem was in the welds. This sharing of information was later deemed illegal by the United States, on October 12,2005, Long March 2F launched the Shenzhou 6 with two astronauts. On June 1,2007, Long March rockets completed their 100th launch overall, on October 24,2007, the Long March 3A successfully launched the Change 1 lunar orbiting spacecraft from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. On September 25,2008, a Long March 2F launched Shenzhou 7, Chinas first three-man mission, the string of successful launches ended on August 31,2009, when the launch of Palapa-D partially failed due to a third stage malfunction. On the June 11,2013, a Long March 2F, launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, as of March 2016, there have been 225 Long March missions. The Long March is Chinas primary expendable launch system family, the Shenzhou spacecraft and Change lunar orbiters are also launched on the Long March rocket. The maximum payload for LEO is 12,000 kg, the payload for GTO is 5,500 kg. The next generation rocket – Long March 5 variants will offer more payload in the future, Long March 1s 1st and 2nd stage uses nitric acid and UDMH propellants, and its upper stage uses a spin-stabilized solid rocket engine. Long March 2, Long March 3, Long March 4, the upper stages of Long March 3 rockets use YF-73 and YF-75 engines, using Liquid hydrogen as the fuel and Liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. Long March 9 is a Chinese super-heavy carrier rocket that is currently in study and it is planned for a maximum payload capacity of at least 130,000 kg to LEO or at least 50,000 kg to Lunar Transfer Orbit. Its first flight is expected in 2025 in preparation for a lunar landing in 2029
18.
Shenzhou 5
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Shenzhou 5 — was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle, there had been four previous flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions since 1999. China became the country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability after the Soviet Union. The state media reported that crop seeds from Taiwan were brought aboard the spacecraft. Hu added, the Party and the people never forget those who have set up this outstanding merit in the space industry for the motherland, the people. The launch was met with praise from around the world, for example, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan called the launch a great feat. United States President George W. Bush congratulated Chinese President Hu, U. S. State Department spokesman said that the United States wished to applaud Chinas success in becoming only the third country to launch people into space. NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe called Shenzhou 5 an important achievement in human exploration and wished China a continued safe human space flight program
19.
Astronaut
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An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists. Starting in the 1950s up to 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, with the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created, the commercial astronaut. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed an altitude of 100 kilometers. In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles are awarded astronaut wings. As of 17 November 2016, a total of 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km or more in altitude, of which 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these,24 people have traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, to either lunar or trans-lunar orbit or to the surface of the moon, the three astronauts who have not reached low Earth orbit are spaceplane pilots Joe Walker, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie. As of 17 November 2016, under the U. S. definition 558 people qualify as having reached space, of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles in altitude, only one exceeded 100 kilometers. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days in space, as of 2016, the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman,377 days, dryden preferred cosmonaut, on the grounds that flights would occur in the cosmos, while the astro prefix suggested flight to the stars. Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred astronaut, which survived by common usage as the preferred American term, when the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to cosmonaut. In English-speaking nations, a space traveler is called an astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words ástron, meaning star, the first known use of the term astronaut in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his short story The Deaths Head Meteor in 1930. The word itself had been known earlier, for example, in Percy Gregs 1880 book Across the Zodiac, astronaut referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de lInfini of J. -H, rosny aîné, the word astronautique was used. The word may have inspired by aeronaut, an older term for an air traveler first applied to balloonists. An early use in a publication is Eric Frank Russells poem The Astronaut in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond, NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps
20.
Yang Liwei
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Yang Liwei is a major general, military pilot, and China National Space Administration astronaut. In 2003, he became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program and this mission, Shenzhou 5, made China the third country to independently send humans into space. Yang was born in Suizhong County, Huludao, Liaoning province and his mother was a teacher, and his father was an accountant at a state agricultural firm. Yang Liweis wife is also a Peoples Liberation Army officer, with whom he has a son, in 1983, he was admitted to the Number 2 PLAAF Flight Academy and graduated four years later. He participated in the process for astronauts in 1996. In the PLAAF, he logged 1350 hours of time as a fighter pilot before he went to space training. Yang was selected as a candidate in 1998 and has trained for space flight since then. He was chosen from the pool of 13 candidates to fly on Chinas first manned space mission. A former fighter pilot in the Aviation Military Unit of the PLA and he was promoted to full Colonel on 20 October 2003. According to the Youth Daily, the decision had made in advance of his spaceflight. He was launched into space aboard his Shenzhou 5 spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 09,00 CST on 15 October 2003. Prior to his launch almost nothing was made public about the Chinese astronaut candidates, Yang Liwei has reported the apparition of abnormal vibrations 120 seconds after launch, he described as very uncomfortable. As a consequence, corrective measures were taken to the design of the following CZ-2F carrier rocket for the Shenzhou-6. Yang punctuated his journey with regular updates on his condition—variations of I feel good and he spoke to his wife as the Shenzhou 5 started its eighth circuit around the Earth, assuring her from space, I feel very good, dont worry. He ate specially designed packets of shredded pork with garlic, Kung Pao chicken and eight treasure rice, in the middle of the journey, state television broadcast footage of Yang waving a small flag of the Peoples Republic of China and that of the United Nations inside his capsule. State media said Yangs capsule was supplied with a gun, a knife, but the astronauts bleeding lips seen in the official images broadcast sparked rumours of a hard landing confirmed by accounts of personnel present at the landing site. Although the first Chinese citizen in space, Yang Liwei is not the first person of Chinese origin in space, shanghai-born Taylor Wang flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-51-B in 1985. Wang, however, had become a United States citizen in 1975, Yang visited Hong Kong on 31 October 2003, holding talks and sharing his experiences during a six-day stay in the territory
21.
STS-106
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STS-106 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis. The mission also included one spacewalk, veteran Astronaut Terrence Wilcutt lead the seven-man crew, commanding his second Shuttle flight and making his fourth trip into space. Zvezda, which linked up to the ISS on 26 July, the goal of the flight was to prepare Zvezda for the arrival of the first residents, or Expedition, crew later in the fall of 2000 and the start of a permanent human presence on the new outpost. On flight day three, Dr. Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko, who were making their second flights into space, conducted a 6-hour and 14 minute space walk. They completed this with the assistance of their crewmates Burbank and Mastracchio who deftly maneuvered them around with the robotic arm and this spacewalk celebrates the sixth spacewalk in support of the station assembly and the 50th spacewalk in space shuttle history. Also this was the second joint U. S. Lu, designated EV1, wore the space marked by red stripes, while Malenchenko, EV2. This was Lus first space walk, while Malenchenko had conducted a pair of space walks totaling 12 hours during his stay aboard Mir in 1994. Dan Burbank, who was a rookie, served as the space walk choreographer. Mastracchio is backed up on arm operations by Pilot Scott Altman, the final member of the crew was Russian Cosmonaut Dr. Boris Morukov, making his first flight into space. Morukov was responsible for unloading supplies from the Progress vehicle during the phase of the flight. On flight day four the crew entered the International Space Station through Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 to begin the operations of more than three tons of hardware and supplies. Atlantis crew was the first to see the interior of the Russian Zvezda service module since it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in July, additionally, a reboost was performed using the orbiters Reaction Control System to place the station in a higher orbit. Transfer of supplies and maintenance tasks continued well into the fifth day, activities on flight day five included the installation of three batteries inside Zvezda. In order to reduce the weight for launch, Zvezda was launched only five of its eight batteries in place. Lu and Malenchenko spent much of day seven installing voltage. Components of the Elektron system, equipment sent into orbit to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, were installed, the astronauts spent a total of 5 days,9 hours and 21 minutes inside the station before closing the hatch on the orbiting outpost. Wilcutt and Altman commanded a series of four altitude boosts to place the station in an orbit of approximately 241 by 233 statute miles, the first initial amateur radio station was flown on board the space shuttle Atlantis on STS-106. The crew transferred the ham radio gear into the station for future use by the Expedition One crew
22.
Expedition 1
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Expedition 1 was the first long-duration stay on the International Space Station. The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days, from November 2000 to March 2001 and it was the beginning of an uninterrupted human presence on the station which continues as of April 2017. Expedition 2, which also had three members, immediately followed Expedition 1. The official start of the expedition occurred when the crew docked to the station on 2 November 2000, aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-31, the crew was very busy throughout the mission, which was declared a success. The three visiting Space Shuttles brought equipment, supplies, and key components of the space station. The first of these, STS-97, docked in early December 2000, and brought the first pair of large U. S. photovoltaic arrays, which increased the stations power capabilities fivefold. Mid-March 2001 saw the final visit of the expedition, STS-102, whose main purpose was to exchange the Expedition 1 crew with the next three-person long-duration crew. The expedition ended when Discovery undocked from the station on 18 March 2001, the Expedition 1 crew consisted of an American commander and two Russians. The commander, Bill Shepherd, had been in three times before, all on shuttle missions which lasted at most a week. The Russians, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev, both had previous long-duration spaceflights on Mir, with Krikalev having spent over a year in space. The commander, Bill Shepherd, was a former Navy SEAL, whose only spaceflights were on shuttle missions, questions had been raised by the Russian space agency about the choice of Shepherd as mission commander due to his lack of experience. Flight engineer Sergei Krikalev had spent over a year in orbit, mostly on Mir and he had felt excitement to have been one of the first people to enter the Zarya module in 1998, during STS-88, and was looking forward to returning. Yuri Gidzenko was designated commander and pilot of the two-day Soyuz mission to the station, had one previous spaceflight, which was a 180-day stay aboard Mir. Shepherd was only the second U. S. astronaut to be launched in a Russian spacecraft, the first being Norman Thagard, who launched on Soyuz TM-21 to visit Mir in 1995. Shepherd expected one of the biggest challenges for the ISS would be the compatibility of technologies, the first component of the space station was the Zarya module, which was launched unmanned in November 1998. Following this launch, and prior to Expedition 1, there were five manned Space Shuttle flights, some of these flights delivered large modules, such as the pressurized Unity and Zvezda modules, and the first piece of the Integrated Truss Structure. The manned flights were used for assembly of the ISS, as well as to start unpacking the supplies. Prior to Expedition 1, Krikalev expected the ISS to be similar to his experience on Mir ten years previous
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Expedition 2
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Expedition 2 was the second long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station, immediately following Expedition 1. Its three-person crew stayed aboard the station from March to August 2001, in addition to station maintenance, the crew assisted in several station assembly missions, welcomed the first space tourist Dennis Tito, and conducted some scientific experiments. The crew consisted of one Russian, Commander Yury Usachev, the three had been to the station briefly in the previous year, during the 10-day mission STS-101 in May 2000. The Expedition 2 crew was brought to the station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-102, the Expeditions increment began when Discovery docked on 10 March 2001, bringing Expedition 1 to an end. In August Discovery returned to rotate the long-duration crews again, bringing the crew of the next expedition, the Expedition 2 increment ended when Discovery undocked from the station on 20 August 2001. All three crew members had visited the International Space Station together in May 2000 aboard STS-101, in addition to this spaceflight, the Expedition 2 Commander Yuri Usachev also had two other spaceflights, both of which were long-duration missions aboard Mir. In addition to STS-101, flight engineer Susan Helms had three spaceflights, all of which were Space Shuttle missions. James Voss also had three spaceflights, all of which were Space Shuttle missions. Expedition 2, the second crew for the International Space Station arrived in March 2001. They returned to Earth on mission STS-105,22 August 2001 after having spent 163 days aboard the station and 167 days in space, only Voss performed a spacewalk on STS-101, along with Jeffrey Williams. They also prepared the Destiny laboratory to enable upcoming experiments to be conducted, a major focus was on gaining a better understanding of how to protect crew members from radiation while working and living in space. Radiation exposure in high doses over long periods of time can damage human cells, the three-member Expedition 2 crew successfully launched on 8 March 2001 on Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-102. They docked with the International Space Station on 10 March, the first visitors to the station during Expedition 2 was the crew of STS-100, when they docked Space Shuttle Endeavour with the ISS on 21 April 2001. They spent eight days docked to the station, the primary objective of this mission was to deliver and install the Canadarm2 on the ISS, which is a robotic arm similar to the Canadarm which is used on some Space Shuttle flights. A later mission in 2002, STS-111, would deliver a movable base platform which would allow the Canadarm2 to have a larger range. This 8 day mission is referred to as ISS EP-1, ISS-2S, Soyuz 2 Taxi Flight. The Commander of this mission was Kazakh cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev. The other crew member of ISS EP-1 was Yuri Baturin, who had one other spaceflight, Mir EP-4, in July, Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the station for an eight-day visit as a part of STS-104
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Expedition 3
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Expedition 3 was the third expedition to the International Space Station. Commander Frank Culbertson was the only American crew member, and as such the only American not on Earth during the 9/11 attacks, research in space begun by two previous crews aboard the International Space Station expanded during the Expedition Three mission. The third resident crew launched on 10 August 2001 on Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-105, the crew conducted a science-intensive increment and completed four spacewalks. The Expedition Three crew of the International Space Station enjoyed a view of the 2001 Leonid meteor storm. It looked like we were seeing UFOs approaching the earth flying in formation, there were hundreds per minute going beneath us, really spectacular. News reports had warned sky watchers in advance, On 18 November 2001, innumerable bits of comet dust would become meteors when they hit Earths atmosphere at 144,000 miles per hour. Millions of people saw the show, but only three of them—the ones on board the space station—saw it from above and we had to look down to see the meteors, says Culbertson. Thats because the atmosphere is below the station, an international crew of three were the third crew to live aboard the International Space Station. The team was led by American Commander Frank Culbertson, and joined by Russian crewmates Vladimir Dezhurov, mission pilot, as a part of the STS-105 mission, Discovery delivered the Expedition 3 crew to the station. During their four-month stay, the saw the orbital complex expand. The Expedition 3 crew returned home on mission STS-108, all four of the spacewalks during Expedition 3 were completed using the Russian Orlan spacesuit and from the Pirs air lock on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Above the book is a layout of what the station will look like when completed, docked with the space shuttle. On September 11,2001, the International Space Station passed over New York City and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Expedition 4
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Expedition 4 was the fourth expedition to the International Space Station. The fourth resident crew launched on 5 December 2001 on board Space Shuttle Endeavour during mission STS-108 and they became official station residents at 20,03 UTC on 7 December 2001, and remained on board until June 2002, when they landed on STS-111. An international crew of three were the crew to live aboard the International Space Station. The team was led by Russian Yuri I, onufrienko and joined by American crewmates Daniel W. Bursch and Carl E. Walz, both flight engineers. As a part of the STS-108 mission, Endeavour delivered the Expedition 4 crew to the station and they returned to Earth 19 June 2002, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour following the STS-111 mission. The Expedition Four crew conducted three spacewalks during its stay on board the International Space Station, the crew spent a total of 17 hours and 51 minutes outside the station. These spacewalks brought the total up to 34—nine station-based and 25 shuttle-based—that have been conducted at the station for total of 208 hours and 5 minutes and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Expedition 5
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Expedition 5 was the fifth long-duration stay on the International Space Station. The crew, consisting of three people, remained in space for 184 days,178 of which were spent aboard the ISS, Expedition 5 was a continuation of an uninterrupted human presence in space, as of July 2015, which was begun by Expedition 1 in 2000-2001. The crew of Expedition 5 launched to space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour aboard the STS-111 mission on 5 June 2002 and their tenure aboard the station, however, did not occur until they docked with the ISS two days later on 7 June. Perigee,384 km Apogee,396 km Inclination,51. 6° Period,92 min The Expedition Five crew took charge of ISS operations on 7 June 2002. An official ceremony between Expedition crews took place 10 June, with the ringing of the stations brass bell. The Expedition Five crew carried out approximately 25 new investigations on board the ISS, the crew wrapped up a 184-day stay in space when they returned home on STS-1137 December 2002. Space Shuttle Endeavour delivered the Expedition 5 crew during mission STS-111 which launched 5 June 2002, the fifth crew to live aboard the International Space Station was led by Russian Valery Korzun and joined by fellow Cosmonaut Sergei Treshchev and U. S. Astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, both flight engineers, while on board, Dr. Whitson was named NASAs first ISS Science Officer by NASA Administrator OKeefe. The Expedition Five crewmembers conducted two spacewalks during their stay at the International Space Station, both were based out of the Pirs Docking Compartment and used Russian Orlan space suits. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, Expedition 5 Photography ISS Expedition Five Crew
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Expedition 9
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Expedition 9 was the ninth expedition to the International Space Station. This mission was the site for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project, Expedition 8 and Kuipers returned to Earth that same day aboard the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft. Kuipers 11-day mission to the ISS was part of an agreement between ESA and the Federal Space Agency of Russia. The Expedition 9 crew conducted four spacewalks during its stay at the International Space Station, the four spacewalks were devoted to ISS maintenance and assembly. All four were based out of the Pirs Docking Compartment and used Russian Orlan spacesuits, before these four extravehicular activities,52 spacewalks had been performed at the ISS, with 27 based out of the Station. Mission managers decided to reschedule the spacewalk for 30 June, a failed Remote Power Controller Module was responsible for the temporary loss of CMG2 in April. The gyroscope is one of four that control the ISS orientation, spacewalk 3 Gennady Padalka, Mike Fincke Time,4 hours,30 minutes Start time,1,58 a. m. CDT3 August 2004 End time,6,28 a. m. The spacewalkers removed Kromka Panel No.2 and installed Kromka Panel No.3, the Kromka experiment exposes various materials to the space environment. They also replaced another materials science experiment, the spacewalkers replaced the Zarya Control Module flow control panel and installed four safety tether fairleads on Zaryas handrails. ATV support operations included installing equipment for the radio link antennas. Other tasks included installing a Pressure Control and Exposure Monitor Sensor on Pirs, the design of the Expedition 9 mission patch includes a tribute to astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in space exploration. The outspread wings of the eagle have 16 stars and 1 star of David and they represent the Apollo 1 crew Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L crew Francis Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 crew Rick Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, around the eagles neck are 4 small red stars and one larger red star. The large star is for Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space during Vostok 1, the other 4 are for Soyuz 1 cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 11 crew Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Expedition 10
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Expedition 10 was the tenth expedition to the International Space Station, using the Soyuz TMA-5, which stayed during the expedition for emergency evacuation. Chiao was the commander and NASA science officer, and Sharipov was the Soyuz commander. Both Astronauts were researchers in the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project, notable accomplishments included replacing critical hardware in the Quest Joint Airlock, repairing U. S. spacesuits, and submitting a scientific research paper on ultrasound use in space. Chiao was also the first astronaut to vote in a U. S, the launch of Expedition 10 was rescheduled. During preflight testing, a bolt was accidentally activated on the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft. The resulting damage caused was repaired and the mission launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 14 October 2004, during the Expedition 10 mission, two Progress supply spacecraft docked with the International Space Station. The first docked on 25 December 2004 followed by the second on 28 February 2005, European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy launched to the Station with the Expedition 11 crew and spent eight days onboard performing scientific experiments. Vittori returned to Earth with the Expedition 10 crew and he was aboard under a contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The re-entry of the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft was perfect, returning the astronauts to Earth 53 miles northeast of the town of Arkalyk after 192 days,19 hours and 2 minutes in space, the recovery team reached the capsule in minutes. Chiao is a veteran of three Space Shuttle flights, and spent 13 hours on two spacewalks in 2000 as part of a mission at the Station. Sharipov has logged over 211 hours in space and he served as a mission specialist on the Shuttle during the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1998. The Expedition 10 crew completed two spacewalks, including experiment installation and tasks to prepare the Station for the arrival of the new European Automated Transfer Vehicle in 2006, instead, the Automated Transfer Vehicle came in 2008. The first spacewalk took place on 26 January 2005 and the second on 28 March 2005 and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Expedition 11
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Expedition 11 was the 11th expedition to the International Space Station, using the Soyuz TMA-6, which stayed during the expedition for emergency evacuation. European Space Agency Italian Astronaut Roberto Vittori launched with Expedition 11 on the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft, on 6 August 2005 the Orbiter undocked from the ISS taking the MPLM back. During the Expedition 11 mission, Russian Commander Sergei Krikalev exceeded the record for time in space. Krikalev at launch had spent 624.387 days in space and he passed the record on the 123rd day of the mission, on 16 August 2005. His cumulative time in space was 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes upon landing, on 3 October 2005 Soyuz TMA-7 docked bringing the Expedition 12 crew. Thomas Reiter was scheduled to join the mission in October 2005 on the supply mission STS-121 to the ISS, on 18 August 200519,02 UTC the crew started a 4-hour, 58-minute spacewalk. They installed a camera on Zvezda, and checked a Korma contamination-exposure experiment tablet. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Expedition 12
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Expedition 12 was the 12th expedition to the International Space Station, launched from Kazakhstan using the Russian Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft. The crew landed back in Kazakhstan on 8 April 2006 with the addition of the first Brazilian astronaut, american entrepreneur Gregory Olsen was launched in the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft and returned with Expedition 11 on Soyuz TMA-6 on 11 October 2005 thereby becoming the third space tourist. Perigee, Apogee, Inclination,51.6 degrees Orbital period, Station assembly preparations, there were two spacewalks outside the ISS during Expedition 12. MacArthur and Tokarev participated in both of them, the first EVA was on 7 November 2005 for 5 hours and 22 minutes. There were two main objectives, both of which were completed, the first was to install and set up a new camera on the P1 Truss which was later used in the installation of more truss segments. The second was to jettison the Floating Potential Probe which was an instrument, designed to measure the stations electrical potential. The second spacewalk took place on 3 February 2006 and lasted 5 hours and 43 minutes, the astronauts jettisoned an old Russian Orlan spacesuit, named SuitSat-1, that was equipped with a radio for broadcasts to students around the world. The suit reached the end of its life in 2004. They also retrieved the Biorisk experiment, photographed a sensor for a micrometeoroid experiment, on 29 March 2006 a total solar eclipse took place, and the adjacent picture was taken by the Expedition 12 crew. It clearly shows the shadow of the Moon being cast on the Earth, while wake-up music is a tradition aboard space shuttle missions, the ISS crew generally use an alarm clock to wake up. The event was broadcast live on NASA TV and this article incorporates public domain material from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration document Expedition 12
31.
Expedition 13
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Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station, and launched at 02,30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emergency evacuation, astronaut Marcos Pontes launched with Expedition 13 on the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft and became the first Brazilian in space. He returned with Expedition 12 on Soyuz TMA-7 after a nine-day mission, Thomas Reiter, from the European Space Agency, became part of the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006. Reiter was launched with the second Return to Flight mission on Discovery on 4 July 2006, reiters arrival restored the station crew to three members for the first time since May 2003. The stations crew size had reduced to two when shuttle flights were put on hold after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident on 1 February 2003. It was originally scheduled to include a shot off the space station but the event was postponed to Expedition 14. The spacewalk ran behind schedule, requiring an extra 50 minutes to be added to the length in order to complete the camera replacement. The EVA began 1 June, at 23,48 UTC and ended 2 June at 06,19 UTC, other tasks during the walk included repair of a vent for the stations oxygen-producing Elektron unit, and retrieval of experiment packages. The second spacewalk for Expedition 13 occurred on 3 August 2006, the spacewalk was performed by Jeffrey Williams and Thomas Reiter, it began at 14,04 UTC and ended at 19,58 UTC, for a duration of 5 hours and 54 minutes. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, ESA. int, Video from the ISS Expedition 13, taken by Thomas Reiter SpaceFacts. de, Expedition 13 NASA. gov, Expedition 13 Photography
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Expedition 14
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Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station. Commander Michael López-Alegría, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006,04,09 UTC and they joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-121. In December 2006, Discovery mission STS-116 brought Sunita Williams to replace Reiter as the member of Expedition 14. On 21 April 2007, López-Alegría and Tyurin returned to Earth aboard TMA-9, to relocate Soyuz TMA-9 from the aft port of the Zvezda module to nadir port of the Zarya module. To service three Progress visits to the ISS, filled with food, fuel, water and supplies to augment supplies delivered by the visiting Space Shuttles, reconfigure power from solar arrays and cooling system. Remove and jettison shrouds covering the truss system, cosmonaut Tyurin piloted the capsule in for a perfect docking two days later at 05,21 UTC on 20 September, with the hatch to the ISS opening at 08,30 UTC. As they watched Atlantis create a glowing contrail during its plunge into the atmosphere, López-Alegría, the station was a few hundred miles ahead of the shuttle at the time. The expeditions first spacewalk took place on 22 November 2006, starting at 19,17 EST, Tyurin got out of the suit and straightened a suspect hose which apparently had become kinked. During the spacewalk, Tyurin hit a ball from the exterior of the Pirs airlock. This experiment was sponsored by a Toronto-based commercial company, Element 21, the ball weighs just 3 grams, compared with 48 grams for a standard golf ball. At that weight, it was unlikely to damage any station components which might accidentally have been hit, there were three balls allowing two options for repeating the shot if required, but only one shot was actually taken. Taken with a grip by Tyurin, the shot was a substantial slice. In 2006, there were plans for the video from the shot to be used in a TV commercial, the progress of the ball, which contains tracking equipment, could be followed on E21s Track the Ball in Space web site which was set up in 2006. Although, the site simply calculates a distance of the ball based on a constant speed. The stunt was carried out around 35 years after Alan Shepard hit two balls on the moon during Apollo 14. Inspection of a Kurs antenna on the Progress 23 unpiloted cargo carrier that docked at the aft end of the stations Zvezda Service Module on 26 October 2006 was the next task. Final latching of the spacecraft to the station during the procedure was delayed by more than three hours because Mission Control Moscow was not sure the antenna was completely retracted. Tyurin and López-Alegría moved to the rear of Zvezda and photographed the antenna and it was still fully extended, so Tyurin used a screwdriver to release a latch and tried to retract the antenna
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Expedition 15
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Expedition 15 was the 15th expedition to the International Space Station. Four crew members participated in the expedition, although for most of the expeditions duration only three were on the station at any one time, during Expedition 15, the ISS Integrated Truss Structure was expanded twice, STS-117 brought the S3/S4 truss, and STS-118 brought the S5 truss. Flight Engineer Sunita Williams was the first Expedition 15 crew member to arrive and she participated in Expedition 14, until Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin assumed command of the station. Williams arrived at the station on 11 December 2006, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery flight STS-116, Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov arrived the station on 9 April 2007 aboard Soyuz TMA-10. On 26 April 2007, NASA announced that Williams would return to Earth on STS-117, flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, Williams was replaced by Clayton Anderson, who arrived at the station aboard Atlantis, which docked on 10 June 2007. Expedition 15 ended officially after Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson arrived at the station aboard Soyuz TMA-11, landing occurred without incident, and by 10,55 UTC, all crew members were out of the capsule, and the vehicle was secured. Until then, the other time a Soyuz landing had resulted in a ballistic trajectory was the landing of Soyuz TMA-1. Another ballistic trajectory occurred with the landing of Soyuz TMA-11 on 19 April 2008 for Expedition 16, EVA1,30 May 2007 – Yurchikhin/Kotov,5 hours,25 minutes. EVA2,6 June 2007 – Yurchikhin/Kotov,5 hours,37 minutes, EVA3,23 July 2007 – Yurchikhin/Anderson 7 hours,41 minutes. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, NASA – International Space Station Expedition 15. 04/04/07, Soyuz Assembly Complete, Expedition 15 to Launch on April 7, site includes all ISS Status Reports since 2003
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Expedition 16
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Expedition 16 was the 16th expedition to the International Space Station. Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson did not land with the Soyuz TMA-10, STS-120 launched on 23 October, docked on 25 October, and replaced Anderson with new Flight Engineer Daniel Tani. Following docking, the Soyuz seat liners for Anderson and Tani were swapped, Léopold Eyharts, who came aboard during STS-122, joined the mission on 9 February 2008, replacing Tani. The crew was joined by Garrett Reisman, who was launched aboard Endeavour with STS-123, on 11 March 2008. Reisman joined Expedition 16 in progress, and was a part of Expedition 17 as well, upon reentry, the astronauts Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft suffered a minor malfunction, causing the craft to follow a very steep ballistic descent. As a result, the crew experienced forces up to 10 G, Roscosmos reported all three crew members were doing just fine and in good health. The new addition added over 2,500 cubic feet to the living volume. The joint crews also moved the P6 truss, and relocated it from its position on top of the station, to its final port-side position, Whitson and Malenchenko carried out the increments first EVA on 9 November, that prepared the docking port for relocation. On 12 November, Whitson and Tani used the stations Mobile Servicing System to detach the docking port, on 14 November, the Tani and Whitson again used the robotic arm and moved Harmony from its temporary location, to its permanent location on the forward port of Destiny. On 20 November, Whitson and Tani completed the second EVA for the increment, all tasks were accomplished, and three get-ahead tasks were performed. On 24 November, Whitson and Tani completed the third EVA for the increment, all task were accomplished, and photographic inspection of the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint was performed, as well as some ISS maintenance get-ahead tasks. Three hours and 37 minutes into the spacewalk, Whitson surpassed NASA astronaut Sunita Williams with a time at that point of 29 hours and 18 minutes. STS-122 delivered Columbus and replaced Dan Tani with Léopold Eyharts, STS-123 delivered the first element of Kibō and replaced Léopold Eyharts with Garrett Reisman. Expedition 16 also saw the arrival of the first Automated Transfer Vehicle to the station, Expedition 16 also saw the arrival of the first Korean astronaut, Yi So-yeon. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, NASA, Expedition 16 Roscosmos, Soyuz TMA-11 launch page in English, NASA, STS-120 NASA, STS-122 NASA, STS-123 Expedition 16 Photography
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Expedition 17
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Expedition 17 was the 17th expedition to the International Space Station. The first two members, Sergey Volkov, and Oleg Kononenko were launched on 8 April 2008. Once aboard the station, they joined Garrett Reisman, who transferred from Expedition 16 to join the Expedition 17 crew, Reisman was replaced by Gregory Chamitoff, who launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-124 on 31 May 2008. Volkov and Kononenko landed safely on 24 October 2008, while Chamitoff remained aboard the station as an Expedition 18 crewmember, sergei Volkov,35, was the youngest person to command the ISS. Garrett Reisman was the first Jewish resident of the ISS, Gregory Chamitoff was the first crewmember to take bagels with him to the station, three bags of 18 sesame seed bagels. Reisman launched to the station on STS-123 in March, which was during the Expedition 16 spaceflight, Chamitoff launched to the station on STS-124 in June, and stayed through Expedition 18, leaving the station on STS-126 in November
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Expedition 18
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Expedition 18 was the 18th permanent crew of the International Space Station. The first two members, Michael Fincke, and Yuri Lonchakov were launched on 12 October 2008. With them was astronaut Sandra Magnus, who joined the Expedition 18 crew after launching on STS-126 and she was replaced by JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, who arrived at the ISS on STS-119 on 17 March 2009. Gregory Chamitoff, who joined Expedition 18 after Expedition 17 left the station, ended his stay aboard ISS, salizhan Sharipov, was originally slated to be the Soyuz commander and Expedition 18 Flight Engineer 1, but was replaced by his back-up Yuri Lonchakov. m. The conjunction between the debris and the Space Station was not detected until it was too late to perform a collision avoidance manoeuvre, the crew prepared to evacuate the station by closing hatches between modules, and boarding the Soyuz spacecraft that was docked to provide emergency crew escape. The debris did not hit the station, instead it passed by at 16,38 UTC, extravehicular activity List of cumulative spacewalk records List of spacewalks 2000–2014 NASA International Space Station page NASA Expedition 18 page Expedition 18 Photography
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Expedition 19
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Expedition 19 was the 19th long-duration flight to the International Space Station. This expedition launched on 26 March 2009, at 11,49 UTC aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft, Expedition 19 was the final three crew member expedition, before the crew size increased to six crew members with Expedition 20. The expedition was commanded by Russian Air Force Colonel Gennady Padalka, on 31 March 2009, Padalka raised an issue concerning shared use of facilities such as exercise equipment and toilet facilities. Padalka claims that initial approval to use equipment owned by the U. S. government was subsequently turned down. Russian and American members of the crew have now been informed to use only their own toilets, the result was a general lowering of morale on the station. NASA Expedition 19 Main Page NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 19 Photography
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Expedition 20
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Expedition 20 was the 20th long-duration flight to the International Space Station. The expedition marked the first time a six-member crew inhabited the station, because each Soyuz-TMA spacecraft could hold only three people, two separate launches were necessary, Soyuz TMA-14 launched on 26 March 2009, and Soyuz TMA-15 followed on 27 May 2009. Soyuz TMA-15 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10,34 UTC on 27 May 2009, the vehicle docked with the station on 29 May 2009, officially changing the Soyuz TMA-14 crew from Expedition 19 to Expedition 20. Gennady Padalka was the first commander of a station crew. Nicole Stott was the final expedition astronaut to be launched on the shuttle, the station would not be permanently occupied by six crew members all year. For example, when the Expedition 20 crew returned to Earth in November 2009 and this increased to five in early December, when Oleg Kotov, Timothy Creamer and Soichi Noguchi arrived on Soyuz TMA-17. On 3 July 2009 expedition members undocked the Soyuz TMA-14 craft from the aft port of the Zvezda service module and this was done to clear the way for the arrival of a Progress supply craft. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 20 Photography
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Expedition 21
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Expedition 21 was the 21st long-duration mission to the International Space Station. The expedition began on 30 October 2009, with Frank de Winne becoming the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission, the handover between Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 required three Soyuz vehicles being docked to the station at the same time, the first time this has occurred. Soyuz TMA-16 brought the members of Expedition 21 to the ISS. Laliberté returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-14 with two members of Expedition 20 on 11 October 2009, nicole P. Stott was the last ISS expedition crew member to fly on the Space Shuttle. She returned to Earth aboard STS-129 in November 2009, nASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 21 Photography
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Expedition 22
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Expedition 22 was the 22nd long duration crew flight to the International Space Station. This expedition began in November 2009 when the Expedition 21 crew departed, for a period of 3 weeks, there were only 2 crew members, it was the first time that had happened since STS-114. Commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Maksim Surayev were joined by the rest of their crew on 22 December 2009, the expedition ended when Soyuz TMA-16 undocked on 17 March 2010, and was immediately followed by the start of Expedition 23. Source NASA Shannon Walker – Commander Aleksandr Skvortsov Douglas H. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 22 Photography
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Expedition 23
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Expedition 23 was the 23rd long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Expedition 23 began with the Soyuz TMA-16 undocking on 18 March 2010, shortly thereafter cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson arrived at the Space Station on Soyuz TMA-18 on 4 April 2010. The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00,04 EST on 2 April 2010 and it was the first ISS crew to include three Russians at once. The Expedition 23 crew continued outfitting the newest modules of the nearly completed space station, the crew welcomed the shuttle flight STS-131 in April 2010. The Expedition 23 crew also saw the arrival of the Rasvet Russian docking module aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-132 and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 23 photography
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Expedition 24
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Expedition 24 was the 24th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Expedition 24 initially had two planned spacewalks, one Russian and one American Extra-vehicular Activity, the U. S. EVA was re-planned and a second U. S. EVA was added. Source NASA Mikhail Tyurin Aleksandr Samokutyayev Scott J. Kelly Andrei Borisenko Paolo Nespoli Catherine Coleman On 31 July 2010, the alarm was caused by a cooling pump that had failed and caused a Remote Power Controller to trip and cut power to some of the International Space Station. After the steps had been completed Capcomm James Kelly told the crew they could go back to bed as all the work required by the crew on the ISS was complete. A short time later, another alarm sounded and awoke the crew, a failure in the docking ring on the Mini-Research Module 2 Poisk, caused a delay in the planned landing of the Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft. Soyuz TMA-18 was originally planned to undock and land on 24 September 2010, the failure is believed to be due to a faulty indication from a micro-switch on the hatch between the Soyuz and MRM2. A drive gear, which is related to the mechanism was also found to have two broken teeth, and is believed to be related to the problem as well. Three spacewalks, one in Orlan space suits and two in U. S. Extravehicular Mobility Units were originally planned for Expedition 24, however, additional spacewalking tasks were added to remove and replace a failed ammonia pump module. ‡ denotes spacewalks performed from the Pirs docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 24, Twice the Effort - NASA Television overview on YouTube Expedition 24 Photography
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Expedition 25
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Expedition 25 was the 25th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Expedition 25 began with the Soyuz TMA-18 undocking on 25 September 2010, three new crewmembers arrived aboard the ISS October 2010 on Soyuz TMA-01M to join Douglas Wheelock, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Shannon Walker, and formed the full six member crew of Expedition 25. NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock accepted command of Expedition 25 on 22 September 2010, the departure of Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin on 25 November 2010 marked the official end of Expedition 25. During Expedition 25 Progress M-08M spacecraft visited the ISS, docking with the station on 30 October 2010 bringing 2.5 tons of cargo supplies. Space shuttle Discovery on STS-133 mission was scheduled to arrive at the ISS on 3 November 2010 but was rescheduled for launch on 3 February 2011, the 10th anniversary of human life, work and research on the ISS fell during Expedition 25. On 2 November 2000, Expedition 1 Commander William Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev, Expedition 25 ended on 26 November. Source NASA Andrei Borisenko - Commander Paolo Nespoli Catherine Coleman Anatoli Ivanishin Sergei Revin Ronald J. Garan, the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft was mated to its booster in a processing facility for its rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur 5 October 2010. The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft and booster rocket were moved to Launch Complex 5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome on a rail-car 5 October 2010 for final preparations prior to launch, Russian Federal Space Agency revealed that during Expedition 25 and 26,504 sessions of 41 experiments are planned to be implemented. The new experiments include, Molniya-Gamma, Sprut-2, UHF-radiometry, SLS, VIRU, Test, Progress M-08M spacecraft delivered about 2.5 tons of cargo supplies including water, air, fuel and hardware for the Russian Molniya-Gamma and Coulomb Crystal experiments to the station. The Soyuz-U carrier rocket with Progress M-08M, identified by NASA as Progress 40 or 40P, was launched from the Baikonurs Gagarins launch pad at 15,11,50 UTC on 27 October 2010. After three days of flight, at 16,36 UTC on 30 October 2010 Progress M-08M docked with the Pirs module nadir port. A problem during Progress approach to the station forced cosmonauts on the station to intervene. The switch to manual mode was decided at range of 194 m, kaleri worked inside the space stations Zvezda module to fly Progress M-08M remotely using television views and a pair of joysticks and guided it to the successful docking. ‡ denotes spacewalks performed from the Pirs docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 25 photography
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Expedition 26
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Expedition 26 was the 26th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. The expeditions first three crew members – one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts – arrived at the station on board Soyuz TMA-01M on 10 October 2010. Expedition 26 officially began the month on 26 November, when half of the crew of the previous mission, Expedition 25. The commander of Expedition 25, Douglas Wheelock, handed over command of the station to Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly on 24 November 2010. The 26 crew was joined by the crew of STS-133 on 26 February 2011, and was supplied by the ESAs Johannes Kepler unmanned resupply craft, Expedition 26 ended on 16 March 2011 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-01M. The name combines the word magistra, meaning female teacher in Latin, with the acronym ISS, two Russian spacewalks were scheduled for Expedition 26. The first, Russian EVA-27, was conducted Friday,21 January 2011, the second spacewalk, Russian EVA-28, was conducted on the date of 16 February 2011. Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Dmitri Kondratyev conducted both spacewalks and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 26 photography
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Expedition 27
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Expedition 27 was the 27th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station, starting on 16 March 2011. The expedition ended on 23 May 2011 with the departure of the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft, launched in January 2011 to resupply the ISS, Kounotori 2 was the second Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle. It reentered Earths atmosphere at around 03,09 UTC on 30 March, the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 4 April 2011, carrying Expedition 27 crew members Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Andrei Borisenko and Ronald Garan. It docked with the station on 6 April at 23,09 UTC. The docking to the Poisk module occurred as the two spacecraft were orbiting over the Andes Mountains in Chile, the hatches between Soyuz TMA-21 and the ISS were opened at 2,13 UTC on 7 April. The crew recorded their greeting in Russian, English, and Italian while wearing black Gagarin T-shirts, the Progress M-09M cargo spacecraft was undocked from the stations Pirs module at 11,41 UTC on 22 April 2011. Upon the completion of this experiment, the spacecraft was deorbited, Progress M-09M had been launched on a resupply mission to the ISS on 28 January 2011. It carried 2,666 kilograms of cargo to the space station, the docking occurred as the two spacecraft were traveling 220 miles over western Mongolia. The linkup happened just over five hours before NASAs first launch attempt of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission, the shuttle launch was scrubbed because of the failure of two heaters on one of Endeavours auxiliary power units. Endeavour finally launched successfully on 16 May 2011, STS-134, the second-to-the-last mission of the Space Shuttle program, was launched from Kennedy Space Center on 16 May 2011 at 12,56 UTC. On 22 May, while Endeavour was docked, the members of Expedition 27 formally handed over command of the station to the members of Expedition 28. The following day, on 23 May, the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft departed from the ISS, returning Expedition 27 crew members Paolo Nespoli, Catherine Coleman and Dmitri Kondratyev to Earth. Soyuz TMA-20 landed safely in central Kazakhstan at 02,27 UTC on 24 May 2011 and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 27 Photography Expedition 27 Mission Overview Additional photos of Expedition 27 and STS-134 from Wikimedia Commons
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Expedition 28
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Expedition 28 was the 28th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station, and began on 23 May 2011 with the departure of the members of Expedition 27. The expedition saw a number of significant events, including the final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, Expedition 28 was superseded by Expedition 29 on 16 September 2011. Source NASA Expedition 28 began with the undocking and departure of the crew of Expedition 27 on 23 May 2011 at 21,35 UTC. The crew of Soyuz TMA-20 landed safely with Expedition 27 crew members Dmitri Kondratyev, Catherine Coleman, at the time Expedition 28 began, Space Shuttle Endeavour was docked to the ISS on her final mission, STS-134. STS-134 was the 36th Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour and her crew, consisting of Mark Kelly, Gregory Johnson, Michael Fincke, Roberto Vittori, Andrew Feustel, STS-134 was the second-to-last mission of the Space Shuttle. The remainder of the Expedition 28 crew launched aboard Soyuz TMA-02M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 20,12 UTC on 7 June 2011. Originally scheduled to dock to the ISS on 9 June at approximately 21,22 UTC, on 20 June 2011, the European Space Agencys robotic cargo ship Johannes Kepler disengaged from the ISS, having been docked since February 2011. On 21 June 2011, the ATV was deorbited, burning up in the atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean at around 22,44 CET, a Russian Progress cargo ship, designated M-11M was launched on 21 June 2011 to resupply and deliver equipment to the International Space Station. Progress M-11M transferred more than 2.5 tons of cargo to the Space Station, including food, water, scientific hardware, propellant, the cargo ship docked with the Zvezda service module of the Space Station at 16,37 UTC on 23 June 2011. The docking occurred 245 miles above eastern Kazakhstan, on 8 July 2011, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on the STS-135 mission, the final mission in NASAs Space Shuttle program. Atlantis docked to the ISS on 10 July 2011 at 15,07 UTC, the mission was crewed by NASA astronauts Christopher Ferguson, Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus, and Rex Walheim, and departed from the ISS on 19 July 2011. The purpose of the mission was to deliver the Raffaello MPLM, stocked with supplies, the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft departed from the International Space Station on 16 September 2011 at 00,38 UTC. Soyuz Commander Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Flight Engineers Andrei Borisenko and Ronald Garan returned to Earth on 16 September at 03,59 UTC and their landing marked the beginning of Expedition 29. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, NASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 28 Photography
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Expedition 29
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Expedition 29 was the 29th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition formally began on 16 September 2011, with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft. Astronauts Satoshi Furukawa, Michael Fossum and Sergey Volkov, who had arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-02M in June 2011 and it docked successfully with the ISS on 16 November 2011. Expedition 29 officially ended with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-02M on 21 November 2011, Furukawa, Fossum, and Volkov returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft, while astronauts Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov, and Anatoli Ivanishin remained on the ISS as part of Expedition 30. Source NASA The expeditions first three crew members launched aboard Soyuz TMA-02M from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 21,18 UTC on 7 June 2011, the crew consisted of Sergey Volkov, Satoshi Furukawa, and Michael Fossum. Their backups were Oleg Kononenko, Donald Pettit, and André Kuipers, Soyuz TMA-02M docked successfully to the ISS on 9 June 2011, at 5,19 pm EDT. Soyuz TMA-22 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 04,14 UTC on 14 November 2011, carrying Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin, the spacecraft was placed into a 250-kilometre parking orbit, and docked successfully with the ISS at 5,24 am GMT on 16 November 2011. Expedition 29 concluded with the departure of Soyuz TMA-02M from the ISS at 11,00 pm GMT on 21 November 2011, carrying astronauts Fossum, Volkov, the spacecraft soft-landed safely in Kazakhstan at 2,26 am GMT on 22 November. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, nASAs Space Station Expeditions page Expedition 29 Photography
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
