ISS expedition 18

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Expedition 18
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 18
Crew: 3
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-13
Space station: ISS
Start: October 14, 2008, 08:26 UTC
Started by: Coupling of Soyuz TMA-13
The End: April 8, 2009, 03:55 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-13
Duration: 175d 19h 29min
Number of EVAs : 2
Total length of the EVAs: 10h 27min
Team photo
v. l. No. Koichi Wakata, Edward Fincke, Sandra Magnus, Juri Lontschakow, Gregory Chamitoff
v. l. No. Koichi Wakata, Edward Fincke, Sandra Magnus, Juri Lontschakow, Gregory Chamitoff
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ISS expedition 19

ISS Expedition 18 is the mission name for the 18th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The crew lived and worked on board the ISS from October 2008 to April 2009.

team

Substitute team

Mission history

Gregory Chamitoff traveled to the ISS with STS-124 on May 31, 2008 and was part of ISS Expedition 17 . The two space travelers Edward Michael Fincke and Yuri Lontschakow started on October 12, 2008 together with the space tourist Richard Garriott on board the Soyuz TMA-13 for the space station and thus completed the crew for Expedition 18.

The return of Oleg Dmitrijewitsch Kononenko and Sergei Alexandrowitsch Wolkow (both Expedition 17 ) as well as Richard Garriott took place on October 24, 2008 on board the Soyuz TMA-12 .

Astronaut Sandra Magnus arrived at the station on November 16 with STS-126 . She replaced Chamitoff who returned to Earth aboard the space shuttle.

On December 22, 2008, the mission's first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) took place. Fincke and Lontschakow removed various experiments from the outer shell of the station and replaced them with others. The operation had a total duration of about 5½ hours.

The second EVA was carried out on March 10, 2009. Adhesive tape was removed from the Pirs lock to ensure that future docking maneuvers would run smoothly. In addition, the Expose-R experiment was installed to investigate the effects of space on organisms and biological materials. Finally, the condition of the space station was documented photographically. The field work lasted almost five hours.

On March 12, a piece of debris approaching the station was discovered too late to carry out an evasive maneuver. The crew then prepared to evacuate the ISS. At 16:35 UTC they went to Soyuz in order to be able to leave the station as quickly as possible in an emergency. However, a collision did not take place and the space travelers were able to resume their work at 16:45 UTC.

Sandra Magnus returned to Earth on March 26, 2009 with STS-119 after four months in space . She was replaced by Koichi Wakata , who stayed at the station until June and thus also became a member of ISS Expedition 19 and ISS Expedition 20 .

On March 28, 2009 Soyuz TMA-14 docked with the space station and brought the two remaining space travelers for Expedition 19, Gennady Ivanovich Padalka and Michael Barratt , to the station. The American space tourist Charles Simonyi was also on board . On April 8, he returned to Earth with Fincke and Lontschakow on board Soyuz TMA-13 , the decoupling of which also marked the official end of ISS Expedition 18.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 18  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Station Spacewalkers Install Experiments. NASA, December 23, 2008, accessed March 29, 2009 .
  2. ^ Station Spacewalkers Install Experiments, Probe. NASA, March 10, 2009, accessed March 29, 2009 .
  3. ↑ International Space Station Daily Report: ISS On-Orbit Status 03/12/09. NASA - Office of Space Operations, March 12, 2009, accessed March 29, 2009 .