Expedition 20 was the 20th long-duration flight to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
. 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
The Soyuz TMA-14 (russian: Союз ТМА-14, ''Union TMA-14'') was a Soyuz programme, Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight ...
launched on 26 March 2009, and
Soyuz TMA-15
Soyuz TMA-15 was a crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station. Part of the Soyuz programme, it transported three members of the Expedition 20 crew to the space station. TMA-15 was the 102nd crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, since So ...
followed on 27 May 2009.
Soyuz TMA-15 launched from
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
at 10:34 UTC on 27 May 2009.
The vehicle docked with the station on 29 May 2009, officially changing the Soyuz TMA-14 crew from
Expedition 19
Expedition 19 was the 19th long-duration flight to the International Space Station. This expedition launched on 26 March 2009, at 11:49 UTC aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft. Expedition 19 was the final three crew member expedition, before the ...
to Expedition 20.
Gennady Padalka
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (russian: Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for List of spac ...
was the first commander of a six-member station crew, and the first commander of two consecutive expeditions (Expedition 19 and 20).
Nicole Stott
Nicole Marie Passonno Stott (born November 19, 1962) is an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. She served as a Flight Engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a Mission Specialist on STS-128 and STS-133. After 27 year ...
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.
The station would not be permanently occupied by six crew members all year. For example, when the Expedition 20 crew (
Roman Romanenko
Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force; russian: Роман Юрьевич Романенко; born 9 August 1971) is a Russian retired cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He is also a politician, sitting in the ...
,
Frank De Winne
Frank, Viscount De Winne (born 25 April 1961, in Ledeberg, Belgium) is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space (after Dirk Frimout). He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission whe ...
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
Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov (russian: Олег Валериевич Котов) was born on 27 October 1965 in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russian ...
,
Timothy Creamer
Timothy "TJ" Creamer (born November 15, 1959) is a NASA flight director, retired astronaut and a colonel in the United States Army. Creamer was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his hometown. He is mar ...
and
Soichi Noguchi
is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and former JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the ''Columbia'' disaster. He was ...
arrived on
Soyuz TMA-17
Soyuz TMA-17 was a human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-17 crew members participated in ISS Expedition 22 and Expedition 23. The mission ended when the Soyuz TMA-17 capsule landed on 2 June 2010.
Crew
Cr ...
. 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
Soyuz TMA-18 was a 2010 Soyuz flight to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-18 was the 105th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the first crewed flight in 1967.
Crew
Backup crew
Launch
After a successful launch on 2 Ap ...
, carrying
Aleksandr Skvortsov,
Mikhail Korniyenko
Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko (Михаил Борисович Корниенко; born 15 April 1960) is a Russian cosmonaut. Kornienko served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station during Expedition 23/ 24 and was selected alon ...
and
Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Tracy Caldwell Dyson (born Tracy Ellen Caldwell; August 14, 1969) is an American chemist and NASA astronaut. Caldwell Dyson was a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' flight STS-118 in August 2007 and part of the Expedition 23 and E ...
.
Crew
Backup crew
* Maksim Surayev, Commander
* Jeff Williams
*
Timothy Creamer
Timothy "TJ" Creamer (born November 15, 1959) is a NASA flight director, retired astronaut and a colonel in the United States Army. Creamer was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his hometown. He is mar ...
*
Catherine Coleman
Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman (born December 14, 1960) is an American chemist, an engineer, a former United States Air Force colonel, and a retired NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, and departed the International ...
*
André Kuipers
André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth abo ...
*
Dimitri Kondratyev
Dmitri Yuryevich Kondratyev (russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Кондратьев, 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 ...
*
Chris Hadfield
Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, and musician. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also serv ...
Extra-vehicular activity
‡
denotes spacewalks performed from the ''Pirs'' docking compartment in Russian Orlan
orlan is an internationally recognized French artist.
She is not tied to any one material, technology, or artistic practice. She uses sculpture, photography, performance, video, 3D, video games, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and ro ...
suits.
On 3 July 2009 expedition members undocked the Soyuz TMA-14 craft from the aft port of the Zvezda service module and piloted it over to the Pirs docking compartment. This was done to clear the way for the arrival of a Progress supply craft.