Expedition 33

Occurred 11 years ago

Human research studies during Expedition 33 investigated microgravity's affect on the spinal cord and the immune system. The crew also evaluated new exercise techniques to offset the effects of living long-term in space. New software tested alternate space-to-ground communications and an Earth observations study monitored the effects of floods, fires, and volcanos.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Sunita Williams, Yuri Malenchenko, Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin, Akihiko Hoshide

Launch

July 14, 2012

Landing

Nov. 18, 2012

Expedition 33 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 33 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured from the left are NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, commander; along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Russian cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, all flight engineers.
NASA

Expedition 33 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 33 mission aboard the International Space Station.

Crew Members

Sunita Williams, Commander
Yuri Malenchenko, Flight Engineer
Kevin Ford, Flight Engineer
Oleg Novitskiy, Flight Engineer
Evgeny Tarelkin, Flight Engineer
Akihiko Hoshide, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

11/18/12 – Expedition 32/33 Land
10/31/12 – ISS Progress 49 Launch/Dock
10/28/12 – SpaceX CRS-1 Release
10/25/12 – Expedition 33/34 Dock
10/23/12 – Expedition 33/34 Launch
10/10/12 – SpaceX CRS-1 Capture
10/7/12 – SpaceX CRS-1 Launch
9/28/12 – ATV-3 Undock

Spacewalks

Date: Nov. 1, 2012
Duration: 6 hours, 38 minutes
Spacewalkers: Sunita Williams, Aki Hoshide

Expedition 33 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 sun's first rays burst over the Earth's horizon

Mission Summary

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

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 33, 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 33 in the gallery.