Expedition 14

Mission highlights

Expedition 14’s first crew lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006 at 04:10 UTC, with spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari joining them in Soyuz TMA-9. Cosmonaut Tyurin handled the docking two days later, bringing the capsule in perfectly at 05:21 UTC; the hatch opened at 08:30 UTC. The arriving team was welcomed by Expedition 13 members Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, as well as Thomas Reiter, who moved from Expedition 13 to Expedition 14 once his Soyuz seat-liner was swapped.

The next day, the station’s orientation let the crew watch Space Shuttle Atlantis re-enter the atmosphere at the close of STS-115. As Atlantis left a glowing trail during its descent, López-Alegría and Williams described the sight to Houston’s Mission Control Center, with the ISS a few hundred miles ahead of the shuttle. The expedition’s first spacewalk began on 22 November 2006 at 19:17 EST, later than the planned 18:00 EST start because of a cooling problem in Tyurin’s suit. He stepped out of the suit and straightened a hose that had apparently kinked.

Did You Know?

• There were five spacewalks during Expedition 14, totaling 33 hours and 42 minutes.
• Michael López-Alegría participated in all five spacewalks, setting a record for EVAs during an ISS mission.
• The expedition reconfigured power from solar arrays and cooling system.