Expedition 21

Occurred 16 years ago

Expeditions 21 and 22 explored the cardiovascular system, spatial cognition, and aerobic capacity. The crews also studied fluid physics and technical alloys.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Frank De Winne, Jeff Williams, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk, Nicole Stott, Maxim Suraev

Launch

May 27, 2009

Landing

Dec. 1, 2009

👁 Expedition 21 Official Crew Portrait

Expedition 21 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne (center), commander; NASA astronaut Nicole Stott and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, both flight engineers. Pictured on the back row (from the left) are Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, all flight engineers.

NASA

👁 Expedition 21 Official Crew Insignia

The official insignia of the Expedition 21 mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA

Crew Members

Frank De Winne, Commander
Jeffrey Williams, Flight Engineer
Roman Romanenko, Flight Engineer
Robert Thirsk, Flight Engineer
Nicole Stott, Flight Engineer
Maxim Suraev, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

12/1/09 – Expedition 20/21 Land
11/25/09 – STS-129 Undock
11/18/09 – STS-129 Dock
10/30/09 – HTV-1 Kounotori Released
10/17/09 – ISS Progress 35 Docks
10/14/09 – ISS Progress 35 Launches
10/11/09 – Expedition 20 Land
10/2/09 – Expedition 21/22 Dock
9/30/09 – Expedition 21/22 Launch

Spacewalks

Date: Nov. 23, 2009
Duration: 5 hours, 42 minutes
Spacewalks: Robert Satcher, Randolph Bresnik

Date: Nov. 21, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 8 minutes
Spacewalks: Michael Foreman, Randolph Bresnik

Date: Nov. 19, 2009
Duration: 6 hours, 37 minutes
Spacewalks: Michael Foreman, Robert Satcher

Expedition 21 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

Learn more about the range of microgravity science encompassing human research, space phsyics, and more the Expedition 21 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 21, 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 21 in the gallery.

👁 The International Space Station

Space Station Imagery

View imagery taken from the International Space Station since 1999 of daily crew activities, spacewalks, visiting vehicles, and the Earth below.

Expedition 21 News

Blog

3 Min Read

Brain and Eye Studies, Advanced Life Support Tech Top Station Crew’s Day

👁 Image

Blog

4 Min Read

Station Crew Works Robotics, Research as Artemis II Launch Preps Continue

👁 Image

Blog

3 Min Read

Medical Tests, Microbiology Top Research Schedule Aboard Station

👁 Image

Image Article

1 Min Read

Godspeed, Artemis II!

👁 Image

3 Min Read

Crew Kicks Off Week with Cargo Mission Training and Spacewalk Cleanup

Blog

👁 Image

3 Min Read

Crew Off-Duty, Cosmonauts Work Cargo and Station Upkeep

Blog

👁 Image

3 Min Read

Expedition 74 Works Health Research and Cargo Operations on Thursday

Blog

👁 Image

8 Min Read

Station Nation: Aaron Rose, Cold Stowage Mission Manager

Article

Keep Exploring

URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/expedition-21/

⇱ Expedition 21 - NASA

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Expedition 21

Crew Members

Crew and Cargo Missions

Spacewalks

Expedition 21 Resources

Expedition Press Kit

Mission Science

Mission Imagery

Space Station Imagery

Expedition 21 News

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