Expedition 21

Occurred 14 years ago

The Expedition 21 and 22 crews explored how microgravity affects the cardiovascular system, spatial cognition, and aerobic capacity to promote healthy astronauts and successful missions. The crews also observed fluids that change properties when exposed to magnetic fields and evaluated the thermophysical properties of materials when casting technical alloys.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Frank De Winne, Jeff Williams, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk, Nicole Stott, Maxim Suraev

Launch

May 27, 2009

Landing

Dec. 1, 2009

Expedition 21 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 21 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne (center), commander; NASA astronaut Nicole Stott and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, both flight engineers. Pictured on the back row (from the left) are Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, all flight engineers.
NASA

Expedition 21 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 21 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Frank De Winne, Commander
Jeffrey Williams, Flight Engineer
Roman Romanenko, Flight Engineer
Robert Thirsk, Flight Engineer
Nicole Stott, Flight Engineer
Maxim Suraev, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

12/1/09 – Expedition 20/21 Land
11/25/09 – STS-129 Undock
11/18/09 – STS-129 Dock
10/30/09 – HTV-1 Kounotori Released
10/17/09 – ISS Progress 35 Docks
10/14/09 – ISS Progress 35 Launches
10/11/09 – Expedition 20 Land
10/2/09 – Expedition 21/22 Dock
9/30/09 – Expedition 21/22 Launch

Spacewalks

Date: Nov. 23, 2009
Duration: 5 hours, 42 minutes
Spacewalks: Robert Satcher, Randolph Bresnik

Date: Nov. 21, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 8 minutes
Spacewalks: Michael Foreman, Randolph Bresnik

Date: Nov. 19, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 37 minutes
Spacewalks: Michael Foreman, Robert Satcher

Expedition 21 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

Explore hands-on activities, interactive, lesson plans, educator guides, and other downloadable content about this topic.

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 21, 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 21 in the gallery.