Expedition 24

Occurred 13 years ago

The Expedition 23 and 24 crew researched how living in space affects human physiology and studied how plant roots orient themselves in microgravity. Physics studies included observing fluids transitioning from liquid to gas, the movement of molecules within fluids, how metals solidify, and semiconductor crystals grow in the spaceflight environment.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker, Fyodor Yurchikhin

Launch

April 2, 2010

Landing

Sept. 25, 2010

Expedition 24 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 24 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured clockwise are Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov (bottom), commander; NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock; Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Fyodor Yurchikhin; along with NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, all flight engineers.
NASA

Expedition 24 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 24 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Alexander Skvortsov, Commander
Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Flight Engineer
Mikhail Kornienko, Flight Engineer
Douglas Wheelock, Flight Engineer
Shannon Walker, Flight Engineer
Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

4/2/10 – Exp 23/24 Launch
4/4/10 – Exp 23/24 Dock
6/15/10 – Exp 24/25 Launch
6/17/10 – Exp 24/25 Dock
7/27/10 – Russian Spacewalk (6:42)
8/7/10 – U.S. Spacewalk (8:03)
8/11/10 – U.S. Spacewalk (7:26)
8/16/10 – U.S. Spacewalk (7:20)
9/25/10 – Exp 23/24 Land
11/25/10 – Exp 24/25 Land

Spacewalks

Date: Aug. 16, 2010
Duration: 7 hours, 20 minutes
Spacewalkers: Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson

Date: Aug. 11, 2010
Duration: 7 hours, 26 minutes
Spacewalkers: Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson

Date: Aug. 7, 2010
Duration: 8 hours, 3 minutes
Spacewalkers: Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson

Date: July 27, 2010
Duration: 6 hours, 42 minutes
Spacewalkers: Fyodor Yurchikhin, Mikhail Kornienko

Expedition 24 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 24, 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 24 in the gallery.