Expedition 11

Expedition 11

Expedition 11 (2005) is the 11th expedition to the International Space Station, using the Soyuz TMA-6, which stayed during the expedition for emergency evacuation.

European Space Agency Italian Astronaut Roberto Vittori launched with Expedition 11 on the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft and returned April 24, 2005 with Expedition 10 on Soyuz TMA-5.

Crew

• Sergei Krikalev (6), Commander - RSA
• John L. Phillips (2), Flight Engineer - NASA

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

Mission parameters

• Perigee: ~384 km
• Apogee: ~396 km
• Inclination: ~51.6°
• Orbital period: ~92 min

• Docked: April 17, 2005, 06:15 UTC
• Undocked: October 10, 2005, 21:49 UTC
• Time Docked: ~176 days

Mission objectives

Space Shuttle Discovery photographed by Expedition 11 as it performed the first ever Rendezvous pitch maneuver.

The mission was to have conducted space walks on several occasions, using both NASA and Russian space suits.

On 2005 July 28 at 07:18 EDT the Space Shuttle mission STS-114 Orbiter docked and delivered a replacement Control Moment Gyroscope as part of the approximately 4.100 kg cargo carried inside the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) called Raffaello. On August 6, 2005 the Orbiter undocked from the ISS taking the MPLM back.

During the Expedition 11 mission, Russian Commander Sergei Krikalev exceeded the record for total time in space (formerly held by Sergei Avdeyev with 747.593 days). Krikalev at launch had spent 624.387 days in space. He passed the record on the 123rd day of the mission, on August 16, 2005. His cumulative time in space was 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes upon landing.

On September 7, the unpiloted Progress spacecraft 53 (P18) undocked from the station and was deorbited, to make way for the arrival of Progress 54 (P19) which docked on 2005 September 10 and transferred around 2300 kg of cargo, (fuel, water, and dry cargo including oxygen generators) to the station.

On October 3, Soyuz TMA-7 docked bringing the Expedition 12 crew.

Thomas Reiter (ESA) was scheduled to join the mission in October 2005 on the supply mission STS-121 to the ISS, but due to that mission's delay until 2006 he became a crew member of Expedition 13.

Spacewalks

On 2005 August 18 19:02 UTC (3:02 p.m. EDT) the crew started a 4 hour, 58 minute spacewalk. They removed and brought inside the station a Russian Biorisk experiment container housing bacteria from the outside of Pirs; an MPAC (a micrometeoroid and orbital debris collector) and SEED (a materials exposure array) panel from the Zvezda Service Module; and the Matroska experiment, (radiation dosimeters in human-tissue-equivalent material). They installed a television camera on Zvezda, and checked a Korma contamination-exposure experiment tablet, and removed and replaced a materials exposure experiment container.

External links

• [1] - NASA's ISS site
• [2] - NASA's Expedition 11 site, with current event updates
• [3] - Energiya's official ISS-11 page
• [4] - An April 28, 2005 ESA article discussing how Thomas Reiter is scheduled to be the first ESA astronaut to stay long-term on the station
• [5] - An April 25, 2005 ESA article discussing ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori's (Italy) mission.