Expedition 2

Crew

The Expedition 2 crew first flew together on STS-101 in May 2000. Commander Yuri Usachev had previously completed two long stays on Mir, missions EO-15 and EO-21. Flight engineer Susan Helms flew on three other Shuttle flights: STS-54, STS-64, and STS-78. James Voss also flew on three Shuttle missions: STS-44, STS-53, and STS-69.

Mission highlights

Expedition 2 arrived in March 2001 and returned to Earth on mission STS-105, 22 August 2001 after 163 days aboard the station and 167 days in space. Only Voss performed a spacewalk on STS-101, along with Jeffrey Williams. Research facilities launched included a Human Research Facility, two EXPRESS Racks (one containing the Active Rack Isolation System and the Payload Equipment Restraint System), and they prepared the Destiny laboratory for upcoming experiments.

A major focus was understanding how to protect crew members from radiation, as high doses over long periods can damage human cells and cause cancer or central nervous system injury. The crew launched on 8 March 2001 on STS-102, docked on 10 March, but the increment began when the previous crew undocked on 18 March. The first visitors were the crew of STS-100, docking Space Shuttle Endeavour on 21 April 2001 for eight days, delivering and installing the Canadarm2.

Mission patch

The number 2 is enclosed in the Cyrillic MKS and Latin ISS, the respective Russian and English abbreviations for the station. The United States and Russian flags show the crew's nationalities and the program's joint nature. The stars represent the thousands of space workers throughout the ISS partnership who contributed to station construction.