Astronomy:Expedition 68

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Short description: Long-duration mission to the International Space Station
ISS Expedition 68
Expedition 68 crew poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Mission typeLong-duration mission to the ISS
OperatorNASA / Roscosmos
Mission duration180 days, 2 hours and 23 minutes
Expedition
Space StationInternational Space Station
Began29 September 2022[1]
Ended28 March 2023
Arrived aboardSpaceX Crew-4
Soyuz MS-22
SpaceX Crew-5
Soyuz MS-23 (uncrewed launch)
SpaceX Crew-6
Departed aboardSpaceX Crew-4
SpaceX Crew-5
Soyuz MS-22 (uncrewed landing)
Crew
Crew size7-11
Members
  • Expedition 67/68:
  • Kjell N. Lindgren
  • Bob Hines
  • Samantha Cristoforetti[lower-alpha 1]
  • Jessica Watkins
  • Expedition 67/68/69:
  • Sergey Prokopyev
  • Dmitry Petelin
  • Francisco Rubio
  • Expedition 68:
  • Nicole Mann
  • Josh Cassada
  • Koichi Wakata
  • Anna Kikina
  • Expedition 68/69:
  • Stephen Bowen
  • Warren Hoburg
  • Sultan Al Neyadi
  • Andrey Fedyaev
EVAs6
EVA duration41 hours and 51 minutes
ISS Expedition 68 Patch.svg
Expedition 68 mission patch
Expedition 68 Crew Portrait.jpg
Expedition 68 crew portrait (C portion) 

Expedition 68 was the 68th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-21 on 29 September 2022,[2] with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti taking over as ISS commander,[3] and ended upon the departure of the uncrewed Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on 28 March 2023.

Expedition 68 Crew at ISS

Background, Crews and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Cristoforetti and her three SpaceX Crew-4 crewmates Kjell N. Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and American astronaut, Francisco Rubio, who launched aboard Soyuz MS-22 on September 21, 2022, and were transferred from Expedition 67 alongside the Crew-4 astronauts.

Crew-4 departed the station on 13 October 2022 (splashing down the next day)[4] and was replaced by SpaceX Crew-5 through a direct handover, which ferried NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, to the station. Before departing, Cristoforetti handed command of the station over to Prokopyev.[5]

On December 14, 2022, a coolant leak was discovered on the docked Soyuz MS-22 vehicle causing it to leak ammonia, which forced the cancellation of an imminent Russian spacewalk.[6]

After observation and imaging of the damaged spacecraft, in January 2023, Roscosmos and NASA announced that due to the leak, the MS-22 vehicle could not safely return the crew, except in an emergency. The governing bodies also announced changes to the crew manifest: the crew remaining on the station for 12 months and the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to return uncrewed. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was launched uncrewed in February,[7] and the crew returned to Earth on 27 September 2023. The original MS-23 crew instead launched on Soyuz MS-24 to work on the station for both Expedition 69 and 70 instead of Expedition 68 and 69. Rubio's seat liner was shifted to Crew 5 and ultimately all Soyuz MS-22 seat liners were shifted to Soyuz MS-23 as seat liner are specifically designed to seat the cosmonaut seat in it. Usually, this seat liner swapping is not new between two Soyuz but first time for Soyuz to Crew Dragon.[8]

In February, on the day of docking for the Progress MS-22/83P vehicle, another Russian craft Progress MS-21/82P, experienced a coolant leak, the second to occur on station in just two months. Due to this, Russian officials on the ground had postponed the uncrewed launch of the Soyuz MS-23 until an investigation was conducted or a cause was found.[9] Days after the leak, it was determined safe to launch Soyuz MS-23, being launched on February 24. Roscosmos conducted a thermal test of MS-22 which lost coolant agent in the external contour due to the damage of the radiator.[10]

In an unrelated change to the US crew manifest, SpaceX's Crew-6 mission launched on 2 March 2023,[11] as opposed to the usual launch date of April/September. Traditionally, expeditions end with the departure of a Soyuz. This continues with Expedition 68, albeit without crew onboard. All onboard crew were transferred to Expedition 69 with the departure of Soyuz MS-22 on 28 March.

Events manifest

Previous mission: Expedition 67

29 September 2022 - Soyuz MS-21 Departure; Official switch from Expedition 67

6 October 2022 - SpaceX Crew-5 Docking

14 October 2022 - SpaceX Crew-4 Undocking

9 November 2022 - CRS Cygnus NG-18 Capture

9 November 2022 - CRS Cygnus NG-18 Berthing

23 October 2022 - Progress MS-19/80P Undocking

27 October 2022 - Progress MS-21/82P Docking

15 November 2022 - EVA 1 (US-81): 7 hrs, 11 mins

17 November 2022 - EVA 2 (VKD-55): 6 hrs, 25 mins; installed a work platform called the SKKO (translation: Nauka means of attachment of large payloads) on the Nauka module

27 November 2022 - CRS SpX-26 Docking

3 December 2022 - EVA 3 (US-82): 7 hrs, 5 mins; installed an iROSA at Array 3A

14 December 2022 - Soyuz MS-22 Leak, cancelled Russian EVA[12]

22 December 2022 - EVA 4 (US-83): 7 hrs, 8 mins; installed the fourth iROSA at Array 4A

9 January 2023 - CRS SpX-26 Undocking

17/18 January 2023 - Rubio's seat liner moved from Soyuz MS-22 to Crew-5

20 January 2023 - EVA 5 (US-84): 7 hrs, 21 mins

2 February 2023 - EVA 6 (US-85): 6 hrs, 41 mins

11 February 2023 - Progress MS-22/83P Docking

11 February 2023 - Progress MS-21 Leak Event

18 February 2023 - Progress MS-21/82P Undocking

26 February 2023 - Soyuz MS-23 Uncrewed docking

2 March 2023 - Prokopyev and Petelin's seat liner moved from Soyuz MS-22 to Soyuz MS-23

3 March 2023 - SpaceX Crew-6 Docking

6 March 2023 - Rubio's seat liner moved from Crew-5 to Soyuz MS-23

11 March 2023 - SpaceX Crew-5 Undocking

15 March 2023 - Thermal test of Soyuz MS-22 by onboard cosmonauts to check how much it will heat up and whether it can be used for emergency evacuation from the ISS in case of any incident

16 March 2023 - CRS SpX-27 Docking

28 March 2023 - Soyuz MS-22 Uncrewed undocking; official switch to Expedition 69

Next: Expedition 69

Crew

Flight Astronaut Increment 68a Increment 68b Increment 68c Increment 68d Increment 68e
29 Sept - 6 Oct 2022 6 - 14 Oct 2022 14 Oct 2022 - 3 Mar 2023 3 Mar - 11 Mar 2023 11 Mar - 28 Mar 2023
Soyuz MS-22 Russia Sergey Prokopyev, Roscosmos
Second spaceflight 		Flight Engineer Commander[13][14]
Russia Dmitry Petelin, Roscosmos
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
United States Francisco Rubio, NASA
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
SpaceX Crew-4 Italy Samantha Cristoforetti, ESA
Second spaceflight 		Commander[15] Off Station
United States Kjell N. Lindgren, NASA
Second spaceflight 		Flight Engineer Off Station
United States Bob Hines, NASA
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer Off Station
United States Jessica Watkins, NASA
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer Off Station
SpaceX Crew-5 United States Nicole Mann, NASA
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer Off Station
United States Josh Cassada, NASA
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer Off Station
Japan Koichi Wakata, JAXA
Fifth spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer Off Station
Russia Anna Kikina, Roscosmos
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer Off Station
SpaceX Crew-6 United States Stephen Bowen, NASA
Fourth spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
United States Warren Hoburg, NASA
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
United Arab Emirates Sultan Al Neyadi, MBRSC
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
Russia Andrey Fedyaev, Roscosmos
First spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer

Samantha Cristoforetti's mission for ESA on Expeditions 67 and 68 was named Minerva.[16]

Anna Kikina's ride to the station on Crew-5 marked the first time in NASA's Commercial Crew Program that a Russian cosmonaut flew on Dragon, and the first time a Russian (flying for Russia) flew on a US spacecraft in 20 years. [17][18]

Koichi Wakata's flight to the ISS was his fifth, and his first on Dragon. Combined with his previous flights on Soyuz and the Space Shuttle, he becomes the eighth person to fly on three different Earth-launching spacecraft.

(from left) Cassada, Wakata, and Rubio enjoy Christmas Eve dinner on orbit in 2022
Wakata (left), Rubio (center), Mann (right) imaged on station in November 2022.

Vehicle manifest

Vehicle Purpose Port Docking/Capture Date Undocking Date
(if during Expedition 68)
Vehicles inherited from Expedition 66 or Expedition 67
Russia Progress MS-19/80P Russian Cargo Poisk Zenith 17 Feb 2022 (Exp. 66) 23 Oct 2022
United States SpaceX Crew-4 "Freedom" Exp. 67/68 USOS Crew Harmony Zenith 27 Apr 2022 (Exp. 67) 14 Oct 2022[19]
Russia Progress MS-20/81P Russian Cargo Zvezda Aft 3 Jun 2022 (Exp. 67) 7 Feb 2023
Russia Soyuz MS-22/68S "Altai" Exp. 67/68/69 Soyuz Crew Launch Rassvet Nadir 21 Sept 2022 (Exp. 67) 28 Mar 2023
Vehicles docked during Expedition 68
United States SpaceX Crew-5 "Endurance" Exp. 68 USOS Crew Harmony Forward 6 Oct 2022[20] 11 Mar 2023
Russia Progress MS-21/82P Russian Cargo Poisk Zenith 28 Oct 2022 18 Feb 2023
United States CRS Cygnus NG-18 "Sally Ride" US Cargo Unity Nadir 9 Nov 2022[21] 21 Apr 2023 (Exp. 69)
United States CRS Dragon SpX-26 US Cargo Harmony Zenith 27 Nov 2022[22] 9 Jan 2023[23]
Russia Progress MS-22/83P Russian Cargo Zvezda Aft 11 Feb 2023 20 Aug 2023 (Exp. 69)
Russia Soyuz MS-23/69S Exp. 67/68/69 Soyuz Crew Return Poisk Zenith 26 Feb 2023 27 Sep 2023 (Exp. 69)
United States SpaceX Crew-6 "Endeavour" Exp. 68/69 USOS Crew Harmony Zenith 3 Mar 2023 3 Sep 2023 (Exp. 69)
United States CRS Dragon SpX-27 US Cargo Harmony Forward 16 Mar 2023 15 Apr 2023 (Exp. 69)

Notes

  1. ↑ The European portion of SpaceX Crew-4 is called Minerva, which is headed by Samantha Cristoforetti.

References

  1. ↑ "NASA Astronaut, Two Cosmonauts Reach ISS, Expedition 68 to Begin Next Week". 21 September 2022. https://news.abplive.com/science/expedition-68-nasa-astronaut-two-roscosmos-cosmonauts-frank-rubio-sergey-prokopyev-dmitri-petelin-reach-international-space-station-iss-expedition-68-to-begin-1554586. 
  2. ↑ "Expedition 68 Crew Launches to Space Station". 21 September 2022. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/expedition-68-crew-launches-to-space-station/. 
  3. ↑ "ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti becomes first European female ISS commander". https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Minerva/ESA_astronaut_Samantha_Cristoforetti_becomes_first_European_female_ISS_commander. 
  4. ↑ updated, Mike Wall last (2022-10-14). "Watch SpaceX's Crew-4 astronauts return to Earth today after delay" (in en). https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-4-space-station-departure-webcast. 
  5. ↑ updated, Elizabeth Howell last (2022-10-12). "Europe's 1st female space station commander says 'space ninja' crew is ready to come home" (in en). https://www.space.com/international-space-station-commander-cristoforetti-farewell-remarks. 
  6. ↑ "Unexplained leak from docked Soyuz spacecraft cancels Russian ISS spacewalk". Reuters (Reuters). 15 December 2022. https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/unexplained-leak-docked-soyuz-spacecraft-cancels-russian-iss-spacewalk-2022-12-15/. 
  7. ↑ Wattles, Ashley Strickland,Jackie (2023-01-11). "Roscosmos will send replacement spacecraft to return crew to Earth after Soyuz leak" (in en). https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/world/nasa-soyuz-leak-astronauts-return-scn/index.html. 
  8. ↑ "International Space Station Operations, Soyuz Status Update – Space Station" (in en-US). 11 January 2023. https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2023/01/11/international-space-station-operations-soyuz-status-update/. 
  9. ↑ "Russia delays launch of replacement for damaged Soyuz crew ship" (in en-US). 13 February 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-delays-launch-replacement-soyuz-crew-ship-space-station/. 
  10. ↑ Pavlushchenko, Katya [@katlinegrey] (2023-03-15). "Roscosmos announced the thermal test of #SoyuzMS22 which lost coolant agent in the external contour due to the damage of the radiator, but they shared no details. Izvestia talked to their sources in space industry and found out what will happen today.". https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1635927091387543560. 
  11. ↑ "SpaceX and NASA target Crew-6 astronaut launch in mid-February" (in en). 2023-01-10. https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-6-launch-feb-2023. 
  12. ↑ updated, Robert Z. Pearlman last (2022-12-15). "Soyuz spacecraft suffers 'fairly substantial' leak at space station, cancels spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts" (in en). https://www.space.com/soyuz-spacecraft-leak-space-station-cancels-spacewalk. 
  13. ↑ "Rubio Primed for Integrated Crew Ops, Cristoforetti, Prokopyev to Command Expedition 68a/b - AmericaSpace" (in en-US). 2022-08-23. https://www.americaspace.com/2022/08/23/rubio-primed-for-integrated-crew-ops-cristoforetti-prokopyev-to-command-expedition-68/. 
  14. ↑ Bock, Michael (2017-10-16). "NASA Television Upcoming Events". http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html. 
  15. ↑ "Rubio Primed for Integrated Crew Ops, Cristoforetti, Prokopyev to Command Expedition 68a/b - AmericaSpace" (in en-US). 2022-08-23. https://www.americaspace.com/2022/08/23/rubio-primed-for-integrated-crew-ops-cristoforetti-prokopyev-to-command-expedition-68/. 
  16. ↑ Agency, European Space (2022-03-28). "Minerva: ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's Second Space Mission" (in en-us). https://scitechdaily.com/minerva-esa-astronaut-samantha-cristoforettis-second-space-mission/. 
  17. ↑ "1st Russian cosmonaut to launch with SpaceX heads to space station" (in en). 2022-10-05. https://www.space.com/crew-5-anna-kikina-first-russian-on-spacex-mission. 
  18. ↑ "Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard U.S. spacecraft for first time since 2002" (in en-US). 4 October 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anna-kikina-russian-cosmonaut-fly-aboard-us-spacecraft-first-time-2002-spacex-crew-dragon/. 
  19. ↑ "Crew-4 undocks from International Space Station, begins journey back to Earth" (in en). 2022-10-14. https://www.wesh.com/article/crew-4-return/41622267. 
  20. ↑ updated, Josh Dinner last (2022-10-06). "SpaceX's Crew-5 astronaut mission arrives at the International Space Station" (in en). https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-5-mission-docking-success. 
  21. ↑ Navin, Joseph (2022-11-07). "SS Sally Ride Cygnus arrives at ISS on NG-18 mission" (in en-US). https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/ng-18-launch/. 
  22. ↑ Navin, Joseph (2022-11-27). "NASA, SpaceX launch and dock CRS-26 mission to ISS" (in en-US). https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/crs-26-launch/. 
  23. ↑ "SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule heads home from space station" (in en). 2023-01-09. https://www.space.com/spacex-dragon-crs-26-return-to-earth. 



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