Expedition 20 was the 20th long-duration flight to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
. 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
''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur''
, image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg
, caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...
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
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (russian: Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for the most ...
was the first commander of a six-member station crew, and the first commander of two consecutive expeditions (Expedition 19 and 20).
Nicole Stott
Nicole Marie Passonno Stott (born November 19, 1962) is an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. She served as a Flight Engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a Mission Specialist on STS-128 and STS-133. After 27 y ...
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
Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov (russian: Олег Валериевич Котов) was born on 27 October 1965 in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russia ...
,
Timothy Creamer
Timothy "TJ" Creamer (born November 15, 1959) is a NASA flight director, retired 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 m ...
and
Soichi Noguchi arrived on
Soyuz TMA-17
Soyuz TMA-17 was a human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-17 crew members participated in ISS Expedition 22 and Expedition 23. The mission ended when the Soyuz TMA-17 capsule landed on 2 June 2010.
Crew
C ...
. 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.
Crew
Backup crew
* Maksim Surayev, Commander
* Jeff Williams
*
Timothy Creamer
Timothy "TJ" Creamer (born November 15, 1959) is a NASA flight director, retired 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 m ...
*
Catherine Coleman
*
André Kuipers
André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth a ...
*
Dimitri Kondratyev
*
Chris Hadfield
Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, and musician. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also se ...
Extra-vehicular activity
‡
denotes spacewalks performed from the ''Pirs'' docking compartment in Russian Orlan
orlan is an internationally recognized French artist.
She is not tied to any one material, technology, or artistic practice. She uses sculpture, photography, performance, video, 3D, video games, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and ro ...
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
*
Extravehicular activity
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...
*
List of cumulative spacewalk records
*
List of International Space Station spacewalks
*
List of spacewalks 2000–2014
This list contains all spacewalks performed between 12 May 2000 and 22 October 2014 where an astronaut fully or partially left a spacecraft.
2000–2004 spacewalks
''Spacewalk beginning and ending times are given in Coordinated Universal Time ...
References
External links
NASA's Space Station Expeditions page
{{ISS expeditions
Expeditions to the International Space Station
2009 in spaceflight