Expedition 21

Expedition 21 was the 21st long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began on 11 October 2009, with Frank de Winne becoming the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission.

Expedition 21

Promotional Poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	11 October 2009 (2009-10-11)
Ended	1 December 2009 (2010-01)
Arrived aboard	Soyuz TMA-15 Soyuz TMA-16 Stott: STS-128 Space Shuttle Discovery
Departed aboard	Soyuz TMA-15 Soyuz TMA-16 Stott: STS-129 Space Shuttle Atlantis
Crew
Crew size	6 (to November) 5 (from November)
Members	Expedition 20/21: Frank De Winne Roman Romanenko Robert Brent Thirsk Nicole P. Stott (to November) Expedition 21/22: Jeffrey N. Williams Maksim Surayev
Expedition 21 mission patch from left to right: Maksim Surayev, Nicole Stott, Jeffrey Williams, Frank De Winne (commander), Robert Thirsk, Roman Romanenko ISS expeditions ← Expedition 20 Expedition 22 →

Expedition 21 lifts off.

The handover between Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 required three Soyuz vehicles being docked to the station at the same time, the first time this has occurred.

Soyuz TMA-16 brought the final members of Expedition 21 to the ISS, along with space tourist Guy Laliberté. Laliberté returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-14 with two members of Expedition 20 on 11 October 2009.

Nicole P. Stott was the last ISS expedition crew member to fly on the Space Shuttle. She returned to Earth aboard STS-129 in November 2009.

Crew

Position	First Part (October to November 2009)	Second Part (November to December 2009)
Commander	Frank De Winne, ESA Second and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Roman Romanenko, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Robert Thirsk, CSA Second and last Spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3	Jeffrey N. Williams, NASA Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4	Maksim Surayev, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5	Nicole P. Stott, NASA First spaceflight

Source

NASA^[1]

Backup crew

• André Kuipers - Commander
• Dimitri Kondratyev
• Chris Hadfield
• Shannon Walker
• Aleksandr Skvortsov
• Catherine Coleman