Expedition 6

Occurred 21 years ago

Expedition 6 led space experiments to gain new insights in the fields of medicine, materials, plant science, commercial biotechnology, and manufacturing.

Mission Type

Humans in Space

meet the crew

Kenneth Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin, Don Pettit

Launch

Nov. 23, 2002

Landing

May 3, 2003

Astronauts Donald R. Pettit (left), Expedition Six flight engineer; Kenneth D. Bowersox, mission commander; and cosmonaut Nikolai M. Budarin, flight engineer, attired in training versions of the shuttle launch and entry suit, pause from their training schedule for a crew portrait.
NASA

The official insignia of the Expedition 6 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Kenneth Bowersox, Commander
Nikolai Budarin, Flight Engineer
Don Pettit, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

5/3/03 – Expedition 6 Land
4/28/03 – Expedition 7 Dock
4/25/03 – Expedition 7 Launch
2/4/03– ISS Progress 10 Dock
2/2/03– ISS Progress 10 Launch
2/1/03– ISS Progress 9 Undock

Spacewalks

Date: April 8, 2003
Duration: 6 hours, 26 minutes
Spacewalkers: Ken Bowersox, Don Pettit

Date: Jan. 15, 2003
Duration: 6 hours, 51 minutes
Spacewalkers: Ken Bowersox, Don Pettit

Expedition 6 Resources

Status Reports

Expedition 6 Status Reports from October 2002 through May 2003.

Earth's Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent of Earth at the top.

Expedition Press Kit

Get an overview of Expedition 6, its crew, and the activities they were conducting during their 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

Learn more about the range of microgravity science encompassing human research, space phsyics, and more the Expedition 6 crew has conducted.

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 6, 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 6 in the gallery.