Expedition 20
Encyclopedia
Expedition 20 was the twentieth 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 six-member station crew, and the first commander of two consecutive expeditions (Expedition 19 and 20). Nicole Stott was the final expedition astronaut to be launched on the shuttle.
During the expedition, Koichi Wakata performed a special experiment wherein he did not change his underpants for one month, in order to test a specially-designed underwear without washing or changing; he reportedly did not develop body odor due to the effects of the special garment.
The station would not be permanently occupied by six crew members all year. For example, when the Expedition 20 crew (Roman Romanenko
, Frank De Winne
and Bob Thirsk
) returned to Earth in November 2009, for a period of about two weeks only two crew members (Jeff Williams and Max Surayev
) were aboard. This increased to five in early December, when Oleg Kotov
, Timothy Creamer
and Soichi Noguchi
arrived on Soyuz TMA-17
. It decreased to three when Williams and Surayev departed in March 2010, and finally returned to six in April 2010 with the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18
, carrying Aleksandr Skvortsov
, Mikhail Korniyenko
and Tracy Caldwell Dyson
.
‡ denotes spacewalks performed from the Pirs docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits.
On 3 July 2009 expedition members undocked the Soyuz TMA-14 craft from the aft port of the Zvezda service module and piloted it over to the Pirs docking compartment. This was done to clear the way for the arrival of a Progress supply craft.
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
. The expedition marked the first time a six-member crew inhabited the station. Because each Soyuz-TMA
Soyuz-TMA
The Soyuz-TMA is a recent revision of the Soyuz spacecraft, superseded in 2010 by the Soyuz TMA-M..It is used by the Russian Federal Space Agency for human spaceflight...
spacecraft could hold only three people, two separate launches were necessary: Soyuz TMA-14
Soyuz TMA-14
The Soyuz TMA-14 was a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi on his second self-funded flight to the space station...
launched on 26 March 2009, and Soyuz TMA-15
Soyuz TMA-15
Soyuz TMA-15 was a manned spaceflight to the International Space Station. Part of the Soyuz programme, it transported three members of the Expedition 20 crew to the space station. TMA-15 was the 102nd manned flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, since Soyuz 1 in 1967. The Soyuz spacecraft remain docked to...
followed on 27 May 2009.
Soyuz TMA-15 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...
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
Expedition 19
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...
to Expedition 20.
Gennady Padalka
Gennady Padalka
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and an RSA cosmonaut. As of June 2010, Gennady ranks sixth for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station....
was the first commander of a six-member station crew, and the first commander of two consecutive expeditions (Expedition 19 and 20). Nicole Stott was the final expedition astronaut to be launched on the shuttle.
During the expedition, Koichi Wakata performed a special experiment wherein he did not change his underpants for one month, in order to test a specially-designed underwear without washing or changing; he reportedly did not develop body odor due to the effects of the special garment.
The station would not be permanently occupied by six crew members all year. For example, when the Expedition 20 crew (Roman Romanenko
Roman Romanenko
Roman Yurievich Romanenko is a cosmonaut at the Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.-Personal life:His parents, Yuri Victorovich Romanenko and Aleftina Ivanovna Romanenko, live in Star City. He is married to Yulia Leonidovna Romanenko . They have one son...
, Frank De Winne
Frank De Winne
Frank, Viscount De Winne is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space . He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission when he served as commander of ISS Expedition 21.-Education:De Winne graduated in 1979 from the Royal School of Cadets...
and Bob Thirsk
Robert Thirsk
Robert Brent "Bob" Thirsk is a Canadian engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian records for the longest space flight and the most time spent in space .-Personal life:Thirsk is from New Westminster, British Columbia and is married to Brenda...
) returned to Earth in November 2009, for a period of about two weeks only two crew members (Jeff Williams and Max Surayev
Maksim Surayev
Maksim Viktorovich Surayev is a Russian cosmonaut.-Personal:Surayev was born in Chelyabinsk. During his childhood, Suraev lived in several places due to his father's military commitments. First he moved from his birthplace, Chelyabinsk in the Urals, to Siberia. When his father entered the military...
) were aboard. This increased to five in early December, when Oleg Kotov
Oleg Kotov
Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov was born October 27, 1965, in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a military pilot, he joined the Russian cosmonaut corps. He has flown two long duration spaceflight on the International Space Station logging just short of a year in space...
, Timothy Creamer
Timothy Creamer
Timothy "TJ" Creamer is a NASA astronaut and a Colonel in the United States Army. Creamer was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his hometown. He is married to the former Margaret E. Hammer. They have two children.- Education :Bishop McNamara High School,...
and Soichi Noguchi
Soichi Noguchi
is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and a JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. He was most recently in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and...
arrived on Soyuz TMA-17
Soyuz TMA-17
Soyuz TMA-17 was a human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station . TMA-17 crew members participated in ISS Expedition 22 and Expedition 23...
. It decreased to three when Williams and Surayev departed in March 2010, and finally returned to six in April 2010 with the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18
Soyuz TMA-18
Soyuz TMA-18 was a 2010 Soyuz flight to the International Space Station. TMA-18 was the 105th manned flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the first manned flight in 1967.- Crew :- Backup crew :- Launch :...
, carrying Aleksandr Skvortsov
Aleksandr Skvortsov (cosmonaut)
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov is a Russian cosmonaut. He has had one spaceflight, which was a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. His spaceflight took place from April to September 2010, and was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18. He arrived at the station part...
, Mikhail Korniyenko
Mikhail Korniyenko
Mikhail Borisovich Korniyenko is a Russian cosmonaut.-Personal:...
and Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Tracy Caldwell Dyson, PhD is an American chemist and NASA astronaut. Caldwell Dyson was a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007. She was part of the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station between April 4, 2010 and September 25, 2010...
.
Crew
| |
(May to July 2009) |
(July to August 2009) |
(August to October 2009) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commander | Gennady Padalka Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and an RSA cosmonaut. As of June 2010, Gennady ranks sixth for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station.... , RSA Russian Federal Space Agency The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located... Third spaceflight |
||
| Flight Engineer 1 | Michael Barratt Michael R. Barratt Michael Reed Barratt is an American physician and a NASA astronaut. Specializing in aerospace medicine, Barratt served as a flight surgeon for NASA before his selection as an astronaut, and has played a role in developing NASA's space medicine programs for both the Shuttle-Mir Program and... , NASA NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research... First spaceflight |
||
| Flight Engineer 2 | Koichi Wakata Koichi Wakata is a Japanese engineer and a JAXA astronaut. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. During a nearly two decade career in spaceflight he has logged five months in space. Wakata is currently assigned to the Soyuz... , JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The , or JAXA, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the... Third spaceflight |
Timothy Kopra Timothy L. Kopra Timothy Lennart Kopra is a colonel in the United States Army and a NASA astronaut. Kopra deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Desert Storm as a member of the 3rd Armored Division... , NASA First spaceflight |
Nicole Stott, NASA First spaceflight |
| Flight Engineer 3 | Frank De Winne Frank De Winne Frank, Viscount De Winne is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space . He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission when he served as commander of ISS Expedition 21.-Education:De Winne graduated in 1979 from the Royal School of Cadets... , ESA European Space Agency The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states... Second spaceflight |
||
| Flight Engineer 4 | Roman Romanenko Roman Romanenko Roman Yurievich Romanenko is a cosmonaut at the Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.-Personal life:His parents, Yuri Victorovich Romanenko and Aleftina Ivanovna Romanenko, live in Star City. He is married to Yulia Leonidovna Romanenko . They have one son... , RSA First spaceflight |
||
| Flight Engineer 5 | Robert Thirsk Robert Thirsk Robert Brent "Bob" Thirsk is a Canadian engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian records for the longest space flight and the most time spent in space .-Personal life:Thirsk is from New Westminster, British Columbia and is married to Brenda... , CSA Second spaceflight |
||
Backup crew
- Jeff Williams, Commander
- Maksim Surayev
- Timothy CreamerTimothy CreamerTimothy "TJ" Creamer is a NASA astronaut and a Colonel in the United States Army. Creamer was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his hometown. He is married to the former Margaret E. Hammer. They have two children.- Education :Bishop McNamara High School,...
- Catherine ColemanCatherine ColemanCatherine Grace "Cady" Coleman is an American chemist, a former United States Air Force officer, and a current NASA astronaut...
- Chris HadfieldChris HadfieldChris Austin "Chris" Hadfield, O.Ont, MSC, CD is a Canadian astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency who was the first Canadian to walk in space. Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions, STS-74 in 1995 and STS-100 in 2001. He has served as CAPCOM for both Space Shuttle and International...
- Dimitri KondratyevDimitri KondratyevDmitri Yur'yevich Kondrat'yev is a Russian cosmonaut. He served as a crewmember on the International Space Station long duration mission Expedition 27 as Commander, having also served as a Flight Engineer on Expedition 26 during the same stay in space...
- André KuipersAndré KuipersAndré Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He officially became the second Dutch and the third Dutch-born astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on April 19, 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-3 11 days later.Kuipers is scheduled to become the first Dutch astronaut to...
Extra-vehicular activity
| Mission | Spacewalkers | Start (UTC Coordinated Universal Time Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose... ) |
End (UTC) | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expedition 20 EVA 1 ‡ |
Gennady Padalka Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and an RSA cosmonaut. As of June 2010, Gennady ranks sixth for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station.... Michael R. Barratt |
5 June 2009 7:52 |
5 June 2009 12:46 |
4 hours, 54 minutes |
| Prepared the Zvezda service module transfer compartment for the arrival of the Poisk module, installed docking antenna for the module, photographed antenna for evaluation on the ground, and photographed the Strela-2 crane. | ||||
| Expedition 20 EVA 2 |
Gennady Padalka Michael R. Barratt |
10 June 2009 6:55 |
10 June 2009 7:07 |
12 minutes |
| Internal spacewalk in the depressurised Zvezda transfer compartment, to replace one of the Zvezda hatches with a docking cone, in preparation for the docking of the Poisk module later in 2009. Poisk docked automatically to the zenith port of Zvezda on 12 November 2009, and serves as an additional docking port for Russian vehicles. | ||||
‡ denotes spacewalks performed from the Pirs docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits.
On 3 July 2009 expedition members undocked the Soyuz TMA-14 craft from the aft port of the Zvezda service module and piloted it over to the Pirs docking compartment. This was done to clear the way for the arrival of a Progress supply craft.
See also
- List of ISS spacewalks
- Extra-vehicular activityExtra-vehicular activityExtra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
- List of spacewalks since 2000
- List of cumulative spacewalk records