Six-Member ISS Crew Operations Begin

June 1, 2009

Three new crew members arrived at the International Space Station at 8:34 a.m. EDT Friday. After launching from Kazakhstan on Wednesday, flight engineers Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne spent two days in space aboard the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft before docking to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module.

The Expedition 20 crew holds a welcome ceremony in the Zvezda service module.

Awaiting the newest arrivals were the Expedition 19 crew members Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Koichi Wakata and Mike Barratt. Hatch opening between the Soyuz and Zarya occurred at 10:14 a.m. signifying the beginning of Expedition 20 and six-person crew operations. A welcome ceremony and a safety briefing for the new arrivals followed.

Expedition 20 marks the first time that all five of the international partner agencies – NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency – will be represented on orbit. The two cosmonauts Padalka and Romanenko are from Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency; Barratt is from NASA; Thirsk is from the Canadian Space Agency; De Winne is from the European Space Agency; and Wakata is from the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency.

"This is a very exciting moment for the ISS Partners and a major milestone for human spaceflight and exploration. With Frank, Roman and Bob now together with the other three ISS crewmembers, we reach a full six-crew capability on the Station. We have had a very intense two weeks in Europe: the roll out of the Node 3, the selection of six new members of the European Astronaut Corps and now this milestone," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight. "This opens up new and exciting opportunities on the utilisation of the Station for scientific and research activities but also in preparation for future exploration missions to more distant destinations."

De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk will spend the next six months on the Station. For the first four months of their stay, De Winne will be a Flight Engineer as a member of the Expedition 20 crew, reporting to Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka. With a rotation of three of the six crewmembers due in October, De Winne will take over as Commander of the Expedition 21 crew until his return to Earth in November. He is the first European to take on this role.

During his mission, called OasISS, De Winne will use the scientific facilities of the ISS, especially the European Columbus laboratory, to undertake a European program of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. These come predominantly from scientific institutions across Europe and include experiments in human physiology, biology, radiation dosimetry, exobiology, fluid physics and materials sciences.