Expedition 29

Expedition 29 was a 2011 International Space Station resident increment commanded by NASA astronaut Michael Fossum. The expedition began when Soyuz TMA-21 departed on September 16, 2011, leaving Fossum, Sergei Volkov, and Satoshi Furukawa aboard from the Soyuz TMA-02M crew. Soyuz TMA-22 arrived in November with Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoli Ivanishin, and Daniel Burbank, restoring the station to six-person operations after the Soyuz launch system returned to crew service. The increment focused on station research, maintenance, visiting-vehicle support, and continuity after the end of the Space Shuttle program. Expedition 29 ended when Fossum, Volkov, and Furukawa departed on Soyuz TMA-02M, while Shkaplerov, Ivanishin, and Burbank remained aboard for Expedition 30.