 Promotional Poster | |
| Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
|---|---|
| Mission duration | 5 Months |
| Expedition | |
| Space station | International Space Station |
| Began | 29 May 2009, 12:34 UTC[1] |
| Ended | 11 October 2009 |
| Arrived aboard | Exp 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 aboard | Exp 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 size | 8 |
| Members | Gennady 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 |
| EVAs | 2 |
| EVA duration | 5 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]
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Astronaut wore pants for a month". BBC News. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "International Space Station Expeditions". NASA. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ NASA (2008). "International Space Station". NASA. Retrieved 22 October 2008.