ISS expedition 21

Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission:	ISS expedition 21
Crew:	6th
Rescue ships:	Soyuz TMA-15 , Soyuz TMA-16
Space station:	International space station
Start:	October 11, 2009 01:07 UTC
Started by:	Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-14
The End:	December 1, 2009 03:56 UTC
Ended by:	Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-15
Duration:	51d 2h 49min
Team photo
v. l. No. Maxim Surajew, Nicole Stott, Jeffrey Williams, Frank De Winne (Commander), Robert Thirsk, Roman Romanenko
navigation
Previous mission: ISS expedition 20 Next mission: ISS expedition 22

ISS-Expedition 21 is the mission name for the 21st long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The crew lived and worked on board the ISS from October 11 to December 1, 2009.

team

On November 21, 2008, NASA announced the official crew of ISS Expedition 21:

• Frank De Winne (2nd Spaceflight), Commander ( Belgium / ESA ) ( Soyuz TMA-15 )
• Roman Jurjewitsch Romanenko (1st space flight), flight engineer ( Russia / Roscosmos ) (Soyuz TMA-15)
• Robert Thirsk (2nd spaceflight), flight engineer ( Canada / CSA ) (Soyuz TMA-15)
• Jeffrey Williams (3rd spaceflight), flight engineer ( USA / NASA ) ( Soyuz TMA-16 )
• Maxim Surajew (1st spaceflight), flight engineer (Russia / Roscosmos) (Soyuz TMA-16)
• Nicole Stott (1st space flight), flight engineer (USA / NASA) ( STS-128 - STS-129 )

Substitute team

Since Expedition 20, no official replacement team has been announced due to the permanent training for the six-person crew. Unofficially, the backup crews of the feeder spaceships (see there) are considered substitutes. As a rule, these are then used two missions later.

Mission history

With the arrival of Williams and Surayev with Soyuz TMA-16 in October 2009, the ISS expedition began 21. Soyuz TMA-16 was permanently docked on the ISS alongside Soyuz TMA-15 as a second escape capsule (for three people each).

De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk were already on board from May 2009 and were members of ISS Expedition 20 . They switched to ISS Expedition 21 with the arrival of Soyuz TMA-16.

Stott came on board in August 2009 with the space shuttle mission STS-128 and also switched from Expedition 20 to Expedition 21 in October 2009. She returned to Earth in November 2009 with the space shuttle mission STS-129 .

The end of ISS Expedition 21 and the start of ISS Expedition 22 was on December 1, 2009. At that time, De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk returned to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft . In December 2009, three new crew members were transported to the ISS on the Soyuz TMA-17 .

See also

• List of unmanned missions to the International Space Station
• List of space exits
• List of spacemen

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 21  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• ISS-Expedition 21 at Raumfahrer.net
• ISS-Expedition 21 at Spacefacts.de
• ISS Expedition 21 on the website of NASA

swell

1. ↑ Katherine Trinidad, Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters: NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering. NASA, November 21, 2008, accessed November 21, 2008 . 
2. ^ Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, Michael Curie: NASA Announces Change for Return of Station Crew Members. NASA, March 3, 2009, accessed May 22, 2009 . 
3. ↑ Three cosmonauts safely returned to Earth from the ISS. RIA Novosti, December 1, 2009, accessed December 1, 2009 .