Astronomy:Expedition 18

From HandWiki
Short description: Long-duration mission to the International Space Station
ISS Expedition 18
Expedition 18 crew poster.jpg
Promotional Poster
Mission typeISS Expedition
Expedition
Space StationInternational Space Station
Began12 October 2008 (2008-10-12)
Ended8 April 2009 (2009-04-09)
Arrived aboardSoyuz TMA-13
Chamitoff: STS-124
Space Shuttle Discovery
Magnus: STS-126
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Wakata: STS-119
Space Shuttle Discovery
Departed aboardSoyuz TMA-13
Chamitoff: STS-126
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Magnus: STS-119
Space Shuttle Discovery
Wakata: STS-127
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Crew
Crew size3
MembersMichael Fincke
Yuri Lonchakov
Gregory Chamitoff* (October–November)
Sandra Magnus (November–March)
Koichi Wakata† (March–April)
* – transferred from Expedition 17
† – transferred to Expedition 19
EVAs2
EVA duration10 hours, 27 minutes
ISS Expedition 18 Patch.svg
Expedition 18 mission patch
Expedition 18 crew portrait.jpg
(Left to right) Koichi Wakata, Michael Fincke, Sandra Magnus, Yuri Lonchakov, Gregory Chamitoff 

Expedition 18 was the 18th permanent crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The first two crew members, Michael Fincke, and Yuri Lonchakov were launched on 12 October 2008, aboard Soyuz TMA-13. With them was astronaut Sandra Magnus, who joined the Expedition 18 crew after launching on STS-126 and remained until departing on STS-119 on 25 March 2009. She was replaced by JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, who arrived at the ISS on STS-119 on 17 March 2009. Gregory Chamitoff, who joined Expedition 18 after Expedition 17 left the station,[1] ended his stay aboard ISS and returned to Earth with the STS-126 crew.

Crew

Position[2] First Part
(October 2008 to November 2008)
Second Part
(November 2008 to March 2009)
Third Part
(March 2009 to April 2009)
Commander United States Michael Fincke, NASA
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Yuri Lonchakov, RSA
Third and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 United States Gregory Chamitoff, NASA
First Spaceflight
United States Sandra Magnus, NASA
Second spaceflight
Japan Koichi Wakata, JAXA
Third spaceflight

Crew notes

Salizhan Sharipov, was originally slated to be the Soyuz commander and Expedition 18 Flight Engineer 1, but was replaced by his back-up Yuri Lonchakov.<! -- Unless sourcing for "health concerns" is found, this needs to be left out.-->

Backup crew

  • Gennady Padalka – Commander – RSA (for Lonchakov)
  • Michael Barratt- Flight Engineer – NASA (for Fincke)
  • Timothy Kopra – Flight Engineer – NASA (for Chamitoff)
  • Nicole Stott – Flight Engineer – NASA (for Magnus)
  • Soichi Noguchi – Flight Engineer – JAXA (for Wakata)

Mission plan

  • Launch vehicle: Soyuz TMA-13
  • Launch date: 12 October 2008 3:01 a.m. EDT
  • Docking: 14 October 2008
  • Spacewalks: 22 December 2008 (completed 23 December) and 10 March 2009
  • Landing: 8 April 2009

March 2009 debris incident

On 12 March 2009, a piece of debris from the upper stage of a Delta II rocket used to launch a GPS satellite in 1993, passed close to the ISS. The conjunction between the debris and the Space Station was not detected until it was too late to perform a collision avoidance manoeuvre. The crew prepared to evacuate the station by closing hatches between modules, and boarding the Soyuz spacecraft that was docked to provide emergency crew escape.[3] The debris did not hit the station, instead it passed by at 16:38 UTC, and the crew were cleared to resume operations about five minutes later.[3]

Extra-vehicular activity

Mission Spacewalkers Start (UTC) End (UTC) Duration
EVA 1 Yuri Lonchakov
Michael Fincke
23 December 2008
00:51
23 December 2008
06:29
5 hours, 38 minutes
Installed an electromagnetic energy measuring device, (Langmuir probe) on Pirs, removed the Russian Biorisk long-duration experiment, installed the Expose-R experiment package on Zvezda, but subsequently removed it after it failed to activate and transmit telemetry on ground command. Installed the Impulse experiment. EVA conducted from Pirs airlock in Russian Orlan space suits.[4][5]
EVA 2 Yuri Lonchakov
Michael Fincke
10 March 2009
16:22
10 March 2009
21:11
4 hours, 49 minutes

See also

References

External links