Expedition 45

Occurred 8 years ago

The Expedition 45 crew studied how space travel affects telomeres, or the tips of chromosomes, for insights into accelerated aging, heart disease, and cancer. The crewmates also used specialized gear to search for dark matter and measure cosmic rays, as well as study the physics of fuel burning with benefits for Earth and space industries.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

Meet the crew

Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko, Sergey Volkov, Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui

Launch

July 22, 2015

Landing

Dec. 11, 2015

Expedition 45 Official Crew Portrait — Official Expedition 45 crew portrait with (from left) NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Volkov, Mikhail Kornienko, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui.
NASA

The official insignia of the Expedition 45 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Scott Kelly, Commander
Mikhail Kornienko, Flight Engineer
Oleg Kononenko, Flight Engineer
Sergey Volkov, Flight Engineer
Kjell Lindgren, Flight Engineer
Kimiya Yui, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

12/11/15 – Expedition 44/45 Land
12/9/15 – Orbital ATK CRS-4 Capture
12/6/15 – Orbital ATK CRS-4 Launch
10/1/15 – ISS Progress 61 Docks
9/28/15 – HTV-5 Kounotori Release

Spacewalks

Date: Nov. 6, 2015
Duration: 7 hours, 48 minutes
Spacewalkers: Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren

Date: Oct. 28, 2015
Duration: 7 hours, 16 minutes
Spacewalkers: Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren

Expedition 45 Resources

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 45 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 45, 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 45 in the gallery.