Domain Redemption

The Redemption Period is a policy started by ICANN and the Registry Operator, Verisign

http://www.icann.org/registrars/redemption-proposal-14feb02.htm

The Redemption Period is a 30 day, Registry-imposed hold period for domains that have been EXPIRED for at least
40 days, were NOT renewed by the owner or Reseller, and the drop domain process has run. Normally domains would be deleted at this point, but the REDEMPTION PERIOD provides the owner with one last chance to recover the domain before it’s dropped and potentially re-registered by a new owner.

The Redemption process is costly, both in fees and in effort. It will take approximately 2-3 business days to complete the entire process.

Of course, there is always the option of waiting out the entire grace period, which would be approximately 40(Post Expiry Grace period) + 30(Redemption Period) + 6(Pending Delete period) = 76 days. After this period the domain will be deleted and available to register by anyone.