Expedition 25 was the 25th long-duration mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). Expedition 25 began with the

Soyuz TMA-18 Soyuz TMA-18 was a 2010 Soyuz programme, Soyuz flight to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-18 was the 105th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since the Soyuz 1, first crewed flight in 1967. Crew Backup crew Launch After a ...

undocking on 25 September 2010. Three new crewmembers (Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka) arrived aboard the ISS 10 October 2010 on

Soyuz TMA-01M Soyuz TMA-01M was a Soyuz programme, Soyuz flight that transported three members of the Expedition 25 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-01M was the 107th flight of a Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spacecraft, and the first flight of the mode ...

to join Douglas Wheelock, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Shannon Walker, and formed the full six member crew of Expedition 25. NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock accepted command of Expedition 25 on 22 September 2010, taking over from Russia's Aleksandr Skvortsov. The departure of Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin on 25 November 2010 marked the official end of Expedition 25. During Expedition 25 Progress M-08M spacecraft visited the ISS, docking with the space station on 30 October 2010 bringing 2.5 tons of cargo supplies. Space shuttle Discovery on

STS-133 STS-133 (Assembly of the International Space Station#Assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF5) was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' docked with the Int ...

mission was scheduled to arrive at the ISS on 3 November 2010 but was rescheduled for launch on 3 February 2011. The 10th anniversary of human life, work and research on the ISS fell during Expedition 25. On 2 November 2000,

Expedition 1 Expedition 1 was the first long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days, from 2 November 2000 to 19 March 2001. It was the beginning of an uninterrupte ...

commander William Shepherd and flight engineers

Sergei Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut and head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. As a prominent rocket scientist, he ...

and

Yuri Gidzenko Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko (; born March 26, 1962) is a Russian cosmonaut. He was a test cosmonaut of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (TsPK). Gidzenko has flown into space three times and has lived on board the Mir and the International ...

became the first residents of the space station. Expedition 25 ended on 26 November.

Crew

;Source: NASA

Backup crew

Andrei Borisenko Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko (; born 17 April 1964) is a Russian cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmonaut in May 2003, and is a veteran of two long duration missions to the International Space Station. Borisenko served as a flight engineer on boar ...

– Commander * Paolo Nespoli * Catherine Coleman * Anatoli Ivanishin * Sergei Revin * Ronald J. Garan, Jr.

Preflight preparations

At the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

in Kazakhstan, Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri, NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka participated in a variety of activities from 26 September to 4 October 2010 as they prepared for their launch on 8 October 2010 (7 October 2010 U.S. Eastern time) in their

spacecraft to the International Space Station. The footage includes the crew's arrival in Baikonur, their suited and unsuited fit checks in their Soyuz spacecraft, the raising of flags outside their Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters and other traditional activities. The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft was mated to its booster in a processing facility for its rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur 5 October 2010. The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft and booster rocket were moved to Launch Complex 5 (Complex 17P32-5) at Baikonur Cosmodrome on a rail-car 5 October 2010 for final preparations prior to launch. Image:Expedition 25 Soyuz Rolls to the Pad.jpg, The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft is rolled out by train to the launch pad. Image:Soyuz TMA-01M launch.jpg, The Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 pm. EDT on Thursday, 7 October 2010. Image:Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches.jpg Image:Expedition 25 Launch.jpg

Experiments

Russian Federal Space Agency revealed that during Expedition 25 and 26, 504 sessions of 41 experiments (34 experiments from previous Expeditions and seven new experiments) are planned to be implemented. The new experiments include, Molniya-Gamma, Sprut-2, UHF-radiometry, SLS, VIRU, Test and Colon Crystal. Experiments to be carried out include:

Mission highlights

Progress M-05M undocking

The Russian resupply spacecraft

Progress M-05M Progress M-05M (), identified by NASA as Progress 37P, is a Progress (spacecraft), Progress spacecraft launched by the Russian Federal Space Agency in April 2010 to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft carried fresh fo ...

, which came to the station in May 2010, was undocked on 25 October 2010 to make room for another resupply spacecraft – Progress M-08M.

Progress M-08M

Progress M-08M spacecraft delivered about 2.5 tons of cargo supplies including water, air, fuel and hardware for the Russian Molniya-Gamma and Coulomb Crystal experiments to the station. The

Soyuz-U Soyuz-U ( GRAU index: 11A511U) was a Soviet and later Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed by the TsSKB design bureau and constructed at the Progress factory in Samara, Russia. The ''U'' designation stands for ''unified' ...

carrier rocket with Progress M-08M, identified by NASA as Progress 40 or 40P, was launched from the Baikonur's Gagarin's launch pad at 15:11:50

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on 27 October 2010. After three days of autonomous flight, at 16:36 UTC on 30 October 2010 Progress M-08M docked with the Pirs module nadir port. A problem during Progress' approach to the space station forced cosmonauts on the station to intervene. During station-keeping as part of the rendezvous operations, flight controllers in Moscow instructed cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri to activate the

TORU TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Tōru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru, village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, Estonia *Toru River, river ...

manual docking equipment and take over the piloting tasks from the Progress' autonomous KURS system. The switch to manual mode was decided at range of 194 m. Kaleri worked inside the space station's

Zvezda module ''Zvezda'', also known as the ''Zvezda'' Service Module, is a module of the International Space Station (ISS). It was the third module launched to the station, and provided all of the station's life support systems, some of which are suppl ...

to fly Progress M-08M remotely using television views and a pair of joysticks and guided it to the successful docking.

Spacewalks

Yurchikhin and Skripochka participate in Russian EVA 26

‡ denotes spacewalks performed from the ''Pirs'' docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits.

References

External links

NASA's Space Station Expeditions page

{{ISS expeditions Expeditions to the International Space Station 2010 in spaceflight