Expedition 21

Expedition 21 was a 2009 International Space Station resident increment commanded by ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, the first ESA astronaut to command the station. The crew combined De Winne, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk, and Nicole Stott from the prior increment with Soyuz TMA-16 arrivals Jeffrey Williams and Maksim Surayev. The mission supported cardiovascular, cognition, exercise, fluid-physics, and materials-science work while also handling HTV-1 departure, Progress logistics, the arrival of Poisk, and STS-129 station-spares operations. Nicole Stott returned on STS-129 during the increment, becoming the final ISS expedition crew member transported home by a Space Shuttle.