Expedition 44

Occurred 8 years ago

During Expedition 44, the Twins study kicked off with doctors comparing the physical changes between station crew member Scott Kelly and his Earth-bound twin brother Mark Kelly. The crew also explored growing edible salad crops, monitored the types of microbes living on the orbital outpost, and observed liquid crystals to advance electronics for Earth and space applications.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko, Scott Kelly, Oleg Kononenko, Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui

Launch

March 27, 2015

Landing

Sept. 11, 2015

Official Expedition 44 crew portrait with (from left) NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko.
NASA

The official insignia of the Expedition 44 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Gennady Padalka, Commander
Mikhail Kornienko, Flight Engineer
Scott Kelly, Flight Engineer
Oleg Kononenko, Flight Engineer
Kjell Lindgren, Flight Engineer
Kimiya Yui, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

9/11/15 – Soyuz Taxi Flight Land
9/4/15 – Soyuz Taxi Flight Dock
9/1/15 – Soyuz Taxi Flight Launch
8/28/15 – Soyuz Relocation
8/24/15 – HTV-5 Kounotori Capture
8/19/15 – HTV-5 Kounotori Launch
8/14/15 – ISS Progress 58 Undock
7/22/15 – Expedition 44/45 Launch
7/5/15 – ISS Progress 60 Dock
7/3/15 – ISS Progress 60 Launch
6/28/15 – SpaceX CRS-7 Loss

Spacewalks

Date: Aug. 10, 2015
Duration: 5 hours, 31 minutes
Spacewalkers: Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko

Expedition 44 Resources

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 44 highlighting crew and cargo missions, spacewalks, and advanced space research.

The sun's first rays burst over the Earth's horizon

Mission Summary

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 44, 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 44 in the gallery.