Expedition 30 was the 30th long-duration mission 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 ...

(ISS). The expedition's first three crew members –

Dan Burbank Daniel Christopher Burbank (born July 27, 1961) is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Burbank, a Captain in the United States Coast Guard, is the second Coast Guard astronaut after Bruce Melnick. Early ...

Anton Shkaplerov Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (russian: Антон Николаевич Шкаплеров; born 20 February 1972) is a Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights. Personal life Shkaplerov is married to Tatyana Petrovna, and they ...

and

Anatoli Ivanishin Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin (russian: link=no, Анатолий Алексеевич Иванишин; born 15 January 1969) is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TMA ...

– arrived on the ISS aboard

Soyuz TMA-22 Soyuz TMA-22 was a crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-22 was the 111th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, and transported three members of the Expedition 29 crew to the ISS. The spacecraft docked to the ISS on 16 Novembe ...

on 16 November 2011, during the last phase of

Expedition 29 Expedition 29 was the 29th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition formally began on 16 September 2011, with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft. Astronauts Satoshi Furukawa, Mich ...

. Expedition 30 formally began on 21 November 2011, with the departure from the ISS of the

Soyuz TMA-02M Soyuz TMA-02M was a space mission that transported three members of the Expedition 28 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-02M was the 110th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft (first launched 1967) and the second flight of the improved Soyuz ...

spacecraft. The expedition ended on 27 April 2012, as Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin departed from the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-22, marking the beginning of

Expedition 31 Expedition 31 was the 31st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). It began on 27 April 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, which returned the Expedition 30 crew to Earth. The expeditio ...

Crew

;Source: NASA, ESA"ESA astronaut André Kuipers to spend six months on the ISS starting in 2011"

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

, 5 August 2009. Retrieved 2011-10-20.

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-02M departure

Expedition 30 began with the departure of the

Expedition 28 Expedition 28 was the 28th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station, and began on 23 May 2011 with the departure of the members of Expedition 27. The first three members of Expedition 28 arrived on the ISS aboard the Soyuz TMA ...

/ 29 crew on board the

spacecraft, on 21 November 2011 at 23:00 UTC. This left the Expedition 29/30 crew, who had docked with the ISS in the

spacecraft on 16 November 2011 at 05:24 UTC, on board the station. Soyuz TMA-22 launched on 14 November 2011 at 04:14 UTC, 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 ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Soyuz TMA-03M arrival

The ISS was crewed by the first three Expedition 30 crewmembers for approximately five-and-a-half weeks. They were joined on 23 December 2011 by the Expedition 30/ 31 crew, who were carried to the ISS by the

Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-03M was a spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). It launched on 21 December 2011 from Site One at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, carrying three members of Expedition 30 to the ISS. TMA-03M was the 112th flight of ...

spacecraft. Soyuz TMA-03M was launched on 21 December 2011 at 13:16 UTC and docked on 23 December at 15:19 UTC.

Comet Lovejoy observation

On 21 December 2011, Expedition 30 commander

observed a pass of the comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy. The comet was initially thought to be in a destructive orbit around the sun, and passed within of the sun's surface. However, the comet ultimately survived its encounter with the sun.

Spacewalk

On 16 February 2012, Russian crew members

Oleg Kononenko Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (russian: Олег Дмитриевич Кононенко; ; born 21 June 1964 in Turkmenistan) is a Russian cosmonaut from the Turkmen SSR. He has flown to the International Space Station four times, as a flight eng ...

and

performed the first

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

of 2012, moving one of the station's Strela cranes from the ''Pirs'' module to the ''Poisk'' module. The astronauts also installed new debris shields and materials experiments on the exterior of the ISS.

Fiftieth anniversary of ''Friendship 7''

On 20 February 2012, the ISS crew commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...

's first orbital flight in the

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

spacecraft ''

Friendship 7 Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Sov ...

''. The crew surprised the 90-year-old Glenn by speaking to him via video link while he was on-stage with

NASA Administrator The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to ...

Charlie Bolden Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946) is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. He graduated from the United States Naval ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

''Edoardo Amaldi'' ATV docking

The

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

's third

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...

(ATV), ''Edoardo Amaldi'', was launched on 23 March 2012, and docked successfully with the ISS on 28 March. The robotic ATV carried around of propellants, water and dry cargo to the Expedition 30 crew, and also helped boost the station's altitude with its thrusters. The ATV ultimately remained docked until September 2012, whereafter it deorbited and burned up in Earth's atmosphere as planned.

Progress M-15M docking

Progress M-15M Progress M-15M (russian: Прогресс М-15М, italic=yes), identified by NASA as Progress 47P, is a Progress spacecraft used by Roskosmos to resupply the International Space Station during 2012. The fifteenth Progress-M 11F615A60 spacecraft ...

, a Russian unmanned resupply spacecraft, was launched to the ISS from

on 20 April 2012. It successfully docked with the station on 22 April. In preparation for the spacecraft's arrival, its predecessor, Progress M-14M, undocked from the ISS on 19 April, having been docked since 28 January."Progress M-14M bids farewell to ISS as M-15M launches"
NASASpaceflight.com, 19 April 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-22.

Soyuz TMA-22 departure

Expedition 30 ended on 27 April 2012 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-22 from the ISS, carrying astronauts Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin. The three astronauts landed safely in

at 11:45 AM (GMT), while Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit remained aboard the station to begin

References

External links

NASA's Space Station Expeditions pageExpedition 29/30 - Change of Command Ceremony videoExpedition 30/31 - Change of Command Ceremony videoEnd of Expedition 30/Beginning of Expedition 31 video

R. Jay GaBany Robert Jay GaBany (born September 17, 1954, in Charleston, West Virginia) is an American amateur astronomer and astrophotographer who is also known for his work with an international team of astrophysicists led by Dr. David Martínez-Delgado (M ...

Astronomy Picture of the Day: NGC 3521
(15 September 2011) {{ISS expeditions Expeditions to the International Space Station 2011 in spaceflight 2012 in spaceflight