Expedition 20

Occurred 15 years ago

Expeditions 19 and 20 studied bone loss and cardiac atrophy, the immune system, and space nutrition. Japan's Kuonotori cargo craft launched for the first time.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Gennady Padalka, Michael Barratt, Timothy Kopra, Koichi Wakata, Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne

Launch

May 27, 2009

Landing

Oct. 11, 2009

Expedition 20 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 20 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. From the right (front row) are cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, Expedition 19/20 commander; and European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, Expedition 20 flight engineer and Expedition 21 commander. From the left (back row) are NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, Expedition 19/20 flight engineer; Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, Expedition 20/21 flight engineer; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, 18/19/20 flight engineer; and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Expedition 20/21 flight engineer.
NASA

Expedition 20 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 20 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Gennady Padalka, Commander
Michael Barratt, Flight Engineer
Timothy Kopra, Flight Engineer
Koichi Wakata, Flight Engineer
Roman Romanenko, Flight Engineer
Frank De Winne, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

9/21/09 – 34P Undock
9/17/09 – HTV-1 Kounotori Berth
9/10/09 – HTV-1 Kounotori Launch
9/8/09 – STS-128 Undock
8/30/09 – STS-128 Dock
7/29/09 – ISS Progress 34 Dock
7/28/09 – STS-127 Undock
7/17/09 – STS-127 Dock
7/2/09 – Soyuz TMA-14 Relocation
6/30/09 – ISS Progress 33 Undock
5/29/09 – Expedition 20/21 Dock
5/27/09 – Expedition 20/21 Launch

Spacewalks

Date: Sept. 5, 2009
Duration: 7 hours, 1 minute
Spacewalks: John Olivas, Christer Fuglesang

Date: Sept. 3, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 39 minutes
Spacewalks: John Olivas, Christer Fuglesang

Date: Sept. 1, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 35 minutes
Spacewalks: John Olivas, Nicole Stott

Date: July 27, 2009
Duration: 4 hours, 54 minutes
Spacewalks: Chris Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn

Date: July 24, 2009
Duration: 7 hours, 12 minutes
Spacewalks: Chris Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn

Date: July 22, 2009
Duration: 5 hours, 59 minutes
Spacewalks: David Wolf, Chris Cassidy

Date: July 20, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 53 minutes
Spacewalks: David Wolf, Thomas Marshburn

Date: July 18, 2009
Duration: 5 hours, 32 minutes
Spacewalks: David Wolf, Tim Kopra

Date: June 10, 2009
Duration: 0 hours, 12 minutes
Spacewalks: Gennady Padalka, Michael Barratt

Date: June 5, 2009
Duration: 4 hours, 54 minutes
Spacewalks: Gennady Padalka, Michael Barratt

Expedition 20 Image Gallery

6 Images

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The Canadarm2 robotic arm grapples the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) before installing the HTV to the Harmony module's Earth-facing port on ...

Backdropped by the blackness of space, the International Space Station's Canadarm2 grapples the unpiloted Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) as i...

Backdropped by the blackness of space, the International Space Station's Canadarm2 prepares to grapple the unpiloted Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle...

The Canadarm2 robotic arm reaches out to grapple the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) before installing the HTV to the Harmony module's Earth-f...

The sun sets below Earth's horizon illuminating the atmosphere with its last rays in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orb...

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Expedition 20 Resources

Earth's Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent of Earth at the top.

Expedition Press Kit

Get an overview of the Expedition, its crew and the activities they are working on during this mission to the International Space Station.

The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction (SoFIE) Growth and Extinction Limits (GEL) experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) studies flame growth and extinction in an effort to improve fire safety in space. This image shows a sequence of snapshots taken about 3 seconds apart. During this test point, the ambient oxygen concentration starts relatively high (28%). Initially, the flame is seen as yellow and sooty. As the ambient pressure is reduced, the flame becomes bluer and continues to shrink until fully extinguished. This gives researchers pressure limit data points for flame extinction that could help improve crew and spacecraft safety for future exploration missions.

Mission Science

Learn more about the range of microgravity science encompassing human research, space phsyics, and more the Expedition 20 crew has conducted.

One of the Expedition 41 crew members aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of 222 nautical miles above a point in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Africa near the Tropic of Cancer, photographed this eye-catching panorama of the night sky and the Milky Way on Sept. 27. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, flight engineer, tweeted the image, which was taken with an electronic still camera, set with a 24mm focal length. In his accompanying comments, Wiseman stated, "Sahara sands make the Earth glow orange."

Mission Imagery

During Expedition 20, the crew took images of the Earth views, the orbiting station, their daily lives aboard and the experiments they conducted during their stay, plus so much more. Check out some of the image highlights from Expedition 20 in the gallery.