Expedition 1

ISS Expedition
Name = Expedition 1
Insignia = Expedition 1 insignia (ISS patch).png CallSign = Expedition 1
NumberOfCrew = 3
LaunchDate = October 31, 2000 07:52:47 UTC
LaunchSite = Baikonur Cosmodrome
LaunchVehicle = Soyuz TM-31
Apogee = 396 km
Perigee = 384 km
OrbitalPeriod = 92 min
Inclination = 51.6 deg
StationVisitLength = 136 days 19:10:57
StationEVALength = 0 h 0 min
LandingDate = March 21, 2001 07:33:06 UTC
LandingSite = Kennedy Space Center
LandingVehicle = Discovery STS-102
Duration = 140 days 23:40:19
Orbits = 2,207
Distance = ~93,847,506 km
Mass = 89,155 kg
CrewPhoto = ISS-Expedition 1-crew.jpg
CrewCaption = L-R: Sergei K. Krikalev (Russia), William M. (Bill) Shepherd (U.S.A.), and Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko (Russia)
previous = Mir
next = Expedition 2

Expedition 1 was the first expedition to the International Space Station.

Crew

*William Shepherd (4), Commander - flagicon|USA NASA
*Sergei K. Krikalev (5), Flight Engineer - flagicon|RUS RSA
*Yuri Gidzenko (2), Soyuz Commander - flagicon|RUS RSA

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

Mission parameters

*Perigee: 384 km
*Apogee: 396 km
*Inclination: 51.6°
*Period: 92 min
*Docked: November 2, 2000, 09:21:03 UTC
*Undocked: March 19, 2001, 04:32:00 UTC
*Time Docked: 136 days, 19 h, 10 min, 57 s

Mission objectives

Human space flight entered a new era when the International Space Station received its first resident crew on November 2 2000. The three-member Expedition 1 crew successfully launched October 31 2000 atop a Soyuz rocket on Soyuz TM-31 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their four-month tour aboard the ISS officially ended on March 18 2001. The Expedition 1 crew returned home to Earth on STS-102 on March 21 2001.

An international crew of three were onboard the International Space Station for over four months. The crew consisted of Commander Bill Shepherd, a U.S. astronaut; Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, a Russian cosmonaut; and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut. The crew helped with assembly tasks as new elements, including the U.S. "Destiny" Laboratory, were added to the orbiting outpost. They also conducted early science experiments.

The Expedition One crew members returned to Earth in March aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery at the completion of the STS-102 mission, which brought the second resident crew to the ISS to begin scientific research in earnest following the delivery of "Destiny" a month earlier.During their four months on board the Station, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev hosted three visiting Shuttle crews, which brought the large U.S. photovoltaic arrays to augment ISS power capability, "Destiny", which is the centerpiece for scientific research in the future, and the first science racks for "Destiny", along with a variety of other key hardware. In addition to activating those systems, the Expedition One crew unloaded two unmanned Russian Progress resupply vehicles, which automatically link up to the Station's Russian module docking ports, during thecrew's visit.

In their first weeks on board, the Expedition One crew members activated critical life support systems and unpacked Station components, clothing, laptop computers, office equipment, cables and electrical gear left behind for them by previous Shuttle crews which conducted logistic supply flights to the new complex over the past two years. By "moving in" to their new home, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev set the stage for a continuous human presence in space by international researchers for at least the next15 years.

The Expedition One mission embarked from the same launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Yuri Gagarin was launched more than 40 years ago to become the first human to fly in space. A three-stage, 310-ton Soyuz rocket lifted the crew members to a preliminary orbit about 10 minutes after launch, enabling Gidzenko to begin a series of rendezvous maneuvers, which led to the capsule's docking to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module around 4:21 a.m. EST on November 2. Ninety minutes after docking, Shepherd opened the hatch to Zvezda and the crew members entered the complex for the first time.

Their first tasks included the activation of a food warmer in Zvezda's galley, the setup of their sleeping quarters and initial communications checks with both Mission Control in Houston and the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow. The crew communicated with both teams of flight controllers, using Russian communications gear in Zvezda and the Zarya module, and the S-band Early Communication gear in the U.S. Unity Module, which had been used for the past two years to allow U.S. flight controllers to command ISS systems and read Station system data when Russian ground station coverage is not available.