The Answer is Expedition 42

By Nancy Atkinson - September 23, 2014 at 4:17 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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Don't panic! NASA has been creating some great posters for their missions and Expedition crews to the International Space Stations, and this newest one will warm the heart of any Douglas Adams fan. As we all know, 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Right now, the first half of the Expedition 42 crew has a targeted launch date of Nov. 23, 2014.

Featuring (from left to right):

Terry Virts and Anton Shkaplerov as Zaphod Beeblebrox Aleksandr Samokutyayev as Humma Kavula Barry "Butch" Wilmore as Arthur Dent Elena Serova as Ford Prefect Samantha Cristoforetti as Trillian

Guest star: Robonaut, as Marvin the Paranoid Android

Samantha Cristoforetti posted this image

on her Flickr page

and said the family of Douglas Adams gave the crew permission to do the photo-shoot for this poster, and added that the Point-of-View gun is not Photoshopped, but a real creation.

You can find out more about Expedition 42 here.

Find all the crew posters at the

NASA Spaceflight Awareness product page

. And try not to download too many! They're all great.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com