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

Crew

• William Shepherd (4), Commander - U.S.A.
• Sergei K. Krikalev (5), Flight Engineer - Russia
• Yuri Gidzenko (2), Soyuz Commander - Russia

(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. Laboratory, were added to the orbiting outpost. They also conducted early science experiments.

The Expedition One crew members will return to Earth next February aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery at the completion of the STS-102 mission, which will bring the second resident crew to the ISS to begin scientific research in earnest following the delivery of the U.S. Laboratory Destiny a month earlier. During their four months on board the Station, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev will host three visiting Shuttle crews, which will bring the large U.S. photovoltaic arrays to augment ISS power capability, the U.S. Laboratory Destiny, which will be 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 will unload three unmanned Russian Progress resupply vehicles, which will automatically link up to the Station?s Russian module docking ports during the crew?s visit. In their first weeks on board, the Expedition One crew members will activate critical life support systems and unpack 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 will set the stage for a continuous human presence in space by international researchers for at least the next 15 years. The Expedition One mission will embark from the same launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Yuri Gagarin was launched almost 40 years ago to become the first human to fly in space. A three-stage, 310-ton Soyuz rocket will lift the crew members to a preliminary orbit about 10 minutes after launch, enabling Gidzenko to begin a series of rendezvous maneuvers, which will lead to the capsule?s docking to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module around 4:20 a.m. EST on Nov. 2. Ninety minutes after docking, Shepherd will open the hatch to Zvezda and the crew members will enter the complex for the first time. Their first tasks will include 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 will communicate 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 has 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.