Expedition 26

Occurred 13 years ago

The Expedition 25 and 26 crews studied the station's radiation environment, the decrease in heart size during spaceflight, and modifying nutrition to counteract the effects of weightlessness. Robonaut 2 was installed to test its ability to assist crews. Advanced cooling technologies and fire safety techniques were also explored during the two missions.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Scott Kelly, Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, Paolo Nespoli, Dmitry Kondratyev, Catherin Coleman

Launch

Oct. 7, 2010

Landing

March 16, 2011

Expedition 26 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 26 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured clockwise from the right are NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, commander; NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev, Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli, all flight engineers.
NASA

Expedition 26 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 26 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Scott Kelly, Commander
Oleg Skripochka, Flight Engineer
Alexander Kaleri, Flight Engineer
Paolo Nespoli, Flight Engineer
Dmitry Kondratyev, Flight Engineer
Catherine Coleman, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

3/16/11 – Expedition 25/26 Land
3/10/11 – HTV-2 Kounotori Relocation
3/7/11 – STS-133 Undock
2/26/11 – STS-133 Dock
2/24/11 – ATV-2 Dock
2/18/11 – HTV-2 Kounotori Relocation
2/16/11 – ATV-2 Launch
1/29/11 – ISS Progress 41 Dock
1/27/11 – ISS Progress 41 Launch
1/27/2011 – HTV-2 Kounotori Berth
1/23/11 – ISS Progress 40 Undock
1/22/11 – HTV-2 Kounotori Launch
12/17/10 – Expedition 26/27 Dock
12/15/10 – Expedition 26/27 Launch

Spacewalks

Date: Feb. 16, 2011
Duration: 4 hours, 51 minutes
Spacewalkers: Dmitry Kondratyev, Oleg Skripochka

Date: Jan. 21, 2011
Duration: 5 hours, 23 minutes
Spacewalkers: Dmitry Kondratyev, Oleg Skripochka

Expedition 26 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 26, 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 26 in the gallery.