Expedition 20

Expedition 20
Promotional Poster
Mission typeLong-duration expedition
Mission duration5 Months
Expedition
Space stationInternational Space Station
Began29 May 2009, 12:34 (2009-05-29UTC12:34Z) UTC[1]
Ended11 October 2009 (2009-10-12)
Arrived aboardExp 19/20: Soyuz TMA-14
Exp 20/21: Soyuz TMA-15
Wakata: STS-119
Space Shuttle Discovery
Kopra: STS-127
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Stott: STS-128
Space Shuttle Discovery
Departed aboardExp 19/20: Soyuz TMA-14
Exp 20/21: Soyuz TMA-15
Wakata: STS-127
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Kopra: STS-128
Space Shuttle Discovery
Stott: STS-129
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Crew
Crew size8
MembersGennady Padalka*
Michael Barratt*
Koichi Wakata* (May–July)
Timothy Kopra (July–August)
Nicole Stott† (August–October)
Frank De Winne
Roman Romanenko
Robert Thirsk
* – transferred from Expedition 19
† – transferred to Expedition 21
EVAs2
EVA duration5 hours, 6 minutes

Expedition 20 mission patch

Front Row: Frank De Winne, Gennady Padalka, Roman Romanenko
Back Row: Robert Thirsk, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott, Timothy Kopra, Koichi Wakata

Expedition 20 was the 20th 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.[1]

Soyuz TMA-15 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:34 UTC on 27 May 2009.[1] The vehicle docked with the station on 29 May 2009, officially changing the Soyuz TMA-14 crew from Expedition 19 to Expedition 20.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b c NASA HQ (24 May 2009). "Expedition 20 Crew Launches from Baikonur". NASA. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  2. ^ NASA HQ (29 May 2009). "Expedition 20 Crew Docks with Space Station". NASA. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  3. ^ "Astronaut wore pants for a month". BBC News. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  4. ^ "International Space Station Expeditions". NASA. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  5. ^ NASA (2008). "International Space Station". NASA. Retrieved 22 October 2008.