Expedition 26

Expedition 26

Mission insignia
Number of crew	6
Launch craft	Soyuz TMA-01M, Soyuz TMA-20
Start	26 November 2010 04:46 UTC[1]
End	16 March 2011 08:54 UTC
(l-r) Skripochka, Kaleri, Kondratyev, Nespoli, Coleman and Kelly
Previous expedition Next expedition Expedition 25 Expedition 27

The Expedition 26 was the twenty-sixth long-duration mission to the International Space Station. The expedition's first three crew members – one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts – arrived at the station on board Soyuz TMA-01M on 10 October 2010. Expedition 26 officially began the following month on 26 November,^[2] when half of the crew of the previous mission, Expedition 25, returned to Earth on board Soyuz TMA-19.^[2] The rest of the Expedition 26 crew – one US astronaut, one Russian cosmonaut and one ESA astronaut – joined the trio already onboard when their spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-20, docked with the station on 17 December 2010. The commander of Expedition 25, Douglas Wheelock, handed over command of the station to Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly on 24 November 2010. The 26 crew was joined by the crew of STS-133 on 26 February 2011,^[3] and was supplied by the ESA's Johannes Kepler unmanned resupply craft, which arrived on 24 February. Expedition 26 ended on 16 March 2011.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli's mission to the space station was named MagISStra. The name combines the word magistra, meaning "female teacher" in Latin, with the acronym "ISS", as suggested by Antonella Pezzani of Italy.^[4]

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  The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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  The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is seen shortly after arrival to the launch pad.

Crew

Position	First part (November 2010)	Second part (December 2010[5][6] to March 2011)
Commander	Scott J. Kelly, NASA Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Aleksandr Kaleri, RSA Fifth spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Oleg Skripochka, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3		Dmitri Kondratyev, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4		Catherine Coleman, NASA Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5		Paolo Nespoli, ESA Second spaceflight

Source

NASA^[2][7]

Backup crew

• Ronald Garan, for Kelly
• Anatoli Ivanishin, for Kondratyev
• Sergei Revin, for Skripochka
• Anton Shkaplerov, for Borisenko

Spacewalks

Two Russian spacewalks were scheduled for Expedition 26.^[8] The first, Russian EVA-27, was conducted Friday, 21 January 2011.^[9] The second spacewalk, Russian EVA-28, was conducted on 16 February 2011. Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Dmitri Kondratyev conducted both spacewalks.

References

1. ^ Space.com - Soyuz Capsule Lands Safely With Space Station Crew (26 November 2010)
2. ^ ^{a b c} NASA HQ (2008). "NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_08-306_Expedition_crews.html. Retrieved 21 November 2008. 
3. ^ Mark Carreau, Mark (24 February 2011). "Discovery Soars On Final Mission". AviationWeek.com. http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/awx/2011/02/24/awx_02_24_2011_p0-292466.xml&headline=Discovery%20Soars%20On%20Final%20Mission. Retrieved 25 February 2011. 
4. ^ "Counting down for ESA’s MagISStra mission to Space Station". European Space Agency. 2010-10-08. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM5V1TOREG_index_0.html. Retrieved 2010-11-27. 
5. ^ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_manifest.html
6. ^ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition26/index.html
7. ^ NASA HQ (2009). "NASA and its International Partners Assign Space Station Crews". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/oct/HQ_09-233_Space_Station_Crews.html. Retrieved 7 October 2009. 
8. ^ NASA (October 2010). "Expedition 25 and 26 PRESS KIT - A New Decade Begins". http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/488923main_exp25_26_press_kit.pdf. Retrieved 27 November 2010. 
9. ^ "Cosmonauts Perform 27th Russian Space Station Spacewalk". http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition26/russian_eva27.html. 

External links

• NASA's Space Station Expeditions page
• Expedition 26 photography