Expedition 26 was the 26th long-duration mission to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
. The expedition's first three crew members – one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts – arrived at the station on board
Soyuz TMA-01M
Soyuz TMA-01M was a Soyuz programme, Soyuz flight that transported three members of the Expedition 25 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-01M was the 107th flight of a Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spacecraft, and the first flight of the mode ...
on 10 October 2010. Expedition 26 officially began the following month on 26 November,
when half of the crew of the previous mission,
Expedition 25, returned to Earth on board
Soyuz TMA-19.
The rest of the Expedition 26 crew – one US astronaut, one Russian cosmonaut and one
ESA astronaut – joined the trio already on board when their spacecraft,
Soyuz TMA-20, docked with the station on 17 December 2010.
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
STS-133 (Assembly of the International Space Station#Assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF5) was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' docked with the Int ...
on 26 February 2011, and was supplied by the ESA's
''Johannes Kepler'' unmanned resupply craft, which arrived on 24 February. Expedition 26 ended on 16 March 2011 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-01M.
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Crew
;Source: NASA
Backup crew
*
Ronald Garan, for Kelly
*
Sergey Volkov, for Kaleri
*
Oleg Kononenko, for Skripochka
*
Anatoli Ivanishin, for Kondratyev
*
Michael Fossum, for Coleman
*
Satoshi Furukawa, for Nespoli
MagISStra
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli's mission to the space station was named ''MagISStra''. The name combines the word , meaning "female teacher" in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, with the acronym "ISS", as suggested by Antonella Pezzani of Italy.
Spacewalks
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
Dmitri Yuryevich Kondratyev (, born on 25 May 1969 in Irkutsk, Russia) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. He served as a crew member on the International Space Station long duration mission Expedition 27 as Commander, having also served as a Flight E ...
conducted both spacewalks.
Gallery
Image:Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft departs the ISS.jpg, Soyuz TMA-19 departs the ISS, marking the beginning of Expedition 26.
Image:Expedition 26 Soyuz TMA-20 Rollout.jpg, The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
.
Image:Expedition 26 Soyuz TMA-20 Arrives At Launch Pad.jpg, The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is seen shortly after arrival to the launch pad.
Image:Soyuz TMA-20 rocket launches.jpg, Soyuz TMA-20 lifts-off on 15 December 2010.
Image:STS-133 Discovery approaches the Space Station.jpg, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' approaches the ISS on 26 February 2011.
Image:Soyuz TMA-01M seen as it lands.jpg, Soyuz TMA-01M after landing in Kazakhstan on 16 March 2011
References
External links
NASA's Space Station Expeditions page
{{ISS expeditions
Expeditions to the International Space Station
2010 in spaceflight
2011 in spaceflight