Table of Contents

Astronauts

International Space Station Crew

Aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, CSA astronaut and STS-96 crewmember Julie Payette used a 35 mm camera to capture this image of the International Space Station during a fly-around following separation of the two spacecraft.
(March 26, 1999. Image: NASA)

Since the first International Space Station (ISS) crew arrived at the Station on November 2, 2000, the ISS has been permanently inhabited by rotating crews of two or three people who stay for three to six months. In addition to operating and maintaining the ISS, crews also install new modules and perform various experiments. Once the Station is completely assembled, there will be room to accommodate a permanent crew of up to six people who will conduct experiments to study how to effectively sustain life, both in space and here on Earth.

CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield is seen near Canadarm2 as that recently installed robotics
tool for the International Space Station grasps
the Spacelab pallet.



Mark Shuttleworth, space-flight participant
aboard the Russian Soyuz Rocket.
(Image courtesy of www.africaninspace.com.)

There are two categories of crewmembers who visit the ISS:

• Professional astronauts/cosmonauts have completed the official selection and training process, and are currently employed at the crew office of any of the ISS partner space agencies. Because Canadian space operations astronauts are selected and trained by the Canadian Space Agency, they are eligible to embark on missions to the ISS as professional astronauts.
  
  
• Space-flight participants are individuals (for example, astronauts from non-partner space agencies, engineers, scientists, journalists, teachers, filmmakers, tourists, etc.) who are sponsored to travel to the ISS by one or more ISS partners. They are not professional astronauts with any of the ISS partner agencies.

Living together full time in space

Expedition crewmembers make up the main crew of the ISS and stay on the Space Station for the duration of an expedition (three to six months) to carry out all plans. Because each expedition crew must have one commander and at least two flight engineers, space-flight participants may only be accepted to join the expedition after these positions have been filled.

Professional astronauts may be assigned as crew commanders, pilots, flight engineers, or Station scientists, while space-flight participants only fly as visiting scientists, commercial users, or tourists.