Imagine a really, really big night-light. High up where the birds don’t fly, there is a giant house made of shiny metal called the International Space Station (ISS). A long time ago, back in 2012, a group of brave explorers went to live there. We call them Expedition 33. It wasn't just a quick trip to the park. They stayed there for a very long time, spinning around the Earth like a merry-go-round that never stops.
People often ask what it's like up there. Honestly, it’s kinda weird. There is no floor to walk on because everything floats. If you let go of your juice box, it doesn’t fall. It just hangs there in the air like a little balloon. For the crew of Expedition 33, this was just their normal Tuesday. They had to learn how to eat, sleep, and even go to the potty while floating.
Who were the people on Expedition 33?
The boss of the whole thing was a man named Sunita Williams, but everyone called her Suni. She is super cool. Suni was the commander, which is a fancy word for the person in charge of making sure everyone is safe and the space house stays running. She wasn't alone, though. She had friends with her from different parts of the world. There was Yuri Malenchenko from Russia and Aki Hoshide from Japan. Later on, three more friends—Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy, and Evgeny Tarelkin—flew up in a rocket to join the party.
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It’s basically like a giant sleepover with people from all over the world. They had to speak different languages and work together to fix things. Can you imagine sharing your toys with someone who speaks a different language? They did it every day. They used the Soyuz TMA-05M and Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft to get there, which are like big, fire-breathing metal eggs that push them through the clouds.
The Big Space Walk
One of the most exciting things about Expedition 33 was when they had to go outside. Imagine putting on a giant, puffy white snowsuit that is so thick you can barely move your fingers. This is a spacesuit. Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide went outside the station to fix a power box. It’s called a spacewalk, but they aren't really walking. They are crawling along the outside of the ship while looking down at the whole entire world.
They saw the blue oceans. They saw the white clouds. They saw the lights of the cities at night. It’s very quiet out there. There is no air to breathe, so their suits have to give them oxygen, just like how you breathe in and out when you take a nap. They spent hours out there using special tools to turn bolts and move wires. If they dropped a tool, it would float away forever, so they had to be very careful.
Eating and Sleeping in a Floating House
What do you think they ate? They didn't have a pizza delivery guy. They had to eat food out of plastic bags. Sometimes it was like mushy peas or little bits of meat in gravy. To drink water, they used a straw attached to a pouch. If a drop of water got out, it would turn into a shiny silver ball and float away. You could catch it with your mouth!
- No beds: They don't have soft mattresses.
- Sleeping bags: They zip themselves into bags tied to the wall so they don't bump into things while they dream.
- Exercise: They have to run on a treadmill with bungee cords pulling them down, or their muscles would get soft like marshmallows.
- Work: They spent most of their time doing science experiments to see how plants grow in space and how the human body stays strong.
Expedition 33 was special because they did a lot of research. They looked at how fire burns in space (it turns into a little blue ball!) and how fluids move. Scientists on the ground at NASA and other space agencies watched them through cameras to learn how to help humans go even further, like to Mars.
Why Expedition 33 matters to us
You might think, "Why do I care about people floating in a metal tube?" Well, because of Expedition 33, we learned how to make better medicines and how to keep people healthy. They showed us that even if we come from different countries, we can live together in a small space and be best friends. They stayed up there for 125 days. That is a lot of days! When they finally came back, they landed in a place called Kazakhstan. Their little capsule came down with a big parachute and landed with a "thump" in the grass.
They were a bit dizzy when they got out. Their bodies had forgotten how to feel heavy. People had to help them walk at first. But they were happy because they did a great job. They proved that humans are explorers. We always want to see what is over the next hill, or in this case, what is way up past the clouds.
Things to remember about space travel
If you want to be like the crew of Expedition 33, you have to study hard. You have to learn how things work. You have to be brave. Space is very big and very cold, but it is also beautiful. It’s full of stars and planets that are waiting for us to visit them.
Honestly, the most important thing they taught us is teamwork. Without Yuri, Aki, and Suni working together, the mission wouldn't have worked. They had to trust each other. Even when things were hard or a machine broke, they didn't give up. They stayed calm and fixed it. That is what a real explorer does.
To really understand what these astronauts went through, you can look at the pictures NASA shared from that time. You can see Suni Williams smiling while she floats upside down. You can see the Earth looking like a giant blue marble. It reminds us that we all live on one small planet together.
Actionable Steps for Future Explorers:
- Watch the night sky: Go outside when it's dark and look for a bright light moving fast. That might be the ISS where the astronauts live!
- Practice building: Use your blocks to build a space station. Think about where the astronauts sleep and where they keep their food.
- Learn about gravity: Drop a toy and watch it fall. Then imagine what would happen if it just stayed in the air. That’s what the crew of Expedition 33 lived every day.
- Read more stories: Ask a grown-up to show you videos of astronauts eating in space. It's really funny to see how they catch their food!