![]() Promotional Poster | |
Mission type | ISS Expedition |
---|---|
Expedition | |
Space station | International Space Station |
Began | 11 March 2015 UTC |
Ended | 11 June 2015 UTC |
Arrived aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M |
Departed aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-18M |
Crew | |
Crew size | 6 |
Members | Expedition 42/43: Anton Shkaplerov Samantha Cristoforetti Terry W. Virts Expedition 43/44: Gennady Padalka Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly |
![]() Expedition 43 mission patch ![]() (l-r) Padalka, Kelly, Shkaplerov, Cristoforetti, Kornienko, Virts |
Expedition 43 was the 43rd expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced on 11 March 2015 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M, returning the crew of Expedition 42 to Earth and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M on 11 June 2015.
The Expedition 43 crew spent an extra "bonus month" on board pending investigation of the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft failure. [1] On June 8, 2015 ISS adjusted its orbit to move to a safe distance from a piece of orbital space debris. [1]
This expedition also used the ISSpresso machine and tested a special cup designed to be drunk from in microgravity by using capillary flow. [2] This was a further development of a zero gravity cup invented by astronaut Donald Pettit and tested on ISS in 2008. [3] [4] The new zero g coffee cup idea was further developed by a Fluid physicist at Portland State University among others. [5]
Position | First Part (March 2015) | Second Part (March 2015 to June 2015) |
---|---|---|
Commander | ![]() Second and last spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 1 | ![]() Second spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 2 | ![]() First spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 3 | ![]() Fifth and last Spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 4 | ![]() Second and last spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 5 | ![]() Fourth and last spaceflight | |
Yury Lonchakov was originally supposed to be the Flight Engineer 3. However, he resigned from the Russian Federal Space Agency on September 6, 2013, to take a position at Gazprom. [7] He was also originally supposed to be the commander of Expedition 44.
Robert Brent "Bob" Thirsk, is a Canadian retired engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian record for the most time spent in space. He became an officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 2013 and was named to the Order of British Columbia (OBC) in 2012.
Scott Joseph Kelly is an American engineer, retired astronaut, and naval aviator. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46.
Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin is a Russian cosmonaut of Greek descent, engineer and RSC Energia test-pilot who has flown on five spaceflights. His first spaceflight was a 10-day Space Shuttle mission STS-112. His second was a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a flight engineer for Expedition 15; for this mission he was launched in the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft. He has undertaken two further long-duration stays aboard the ISS, as a crew member of Expedition 24 / 25. For this mission he was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19, and he landed in November 2010, also with the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. He served as Soyuz commander for his fourth mission aboard Soyuz TMA-09M, as flight engineer for Expedition 36 and ISS commander for Expedition 37. In April 2017, Yurchikhin launched on Soyuz MS-04 for the fifth spaceflight of his career, a six-month mission to the ISS as part of Expedition 51 and 52, for which he was the commander.
Douglas Harry "Wheels" Wheelock is an American engineer and astronaut. He has flown in space twice, logging 178 days on the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Russian Soyuz. On July 12, 2011, Wheelock announced that he would be returning to active duty with the United States Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is currently working with NASA to test the Orion spacecraft at the Glenn Research Center in Plum Brook, Ohio.
Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko is a Russian cosmonaut who has undertaken multiple missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
Akihiko Hoshide is a Japanese engineer, JAXA astronaut, and former commander of the International Space Station. On August 30, 2012, Hoshide became the third Japanese astronaut to walk in space.
Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko is a Russian cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmonaut in May 2003, and is a veteran of two long duration missions to the International Space Station.
Kimiya Yui is a Japanese astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He was selected for the agency in 2009.
Kjell Norwood Lindgren is an American astronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He launched to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 44/45 on July 22, 2015.
Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft as an Expedition 29 / Expedition 30 crew member, launching in November 2011 and returning in April 2012. Ivanishin was the Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 49.
Soyuz TMA-06M was a spaceflight to the International Space Station launched on 23 October 2012, transporting three members of the Expedition 33 crew. TMA-06M was the 115th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967. Soyuz TMA-06M launch was also the first crewed flight from the remote Site 31 pad since July 1984.
Soyuz TMA-07M was a spaceflight launched to the International Space Station in 2012 which transported three members of the Expedition 34 crew to the station. The Soyuz remained docked to the space station and served as an emergency escape vehicle for the Expedition 35 increment, before returning its crew to Earth in May 2013.
Soyuz TMA-08M, identified as Soyuz 34 or 34S by NASA, was a 2013 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 35 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-08M was the 117th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967.
Soyuz TMA-14M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 41 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-14M is the 123rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967. The Soyuz remained docked to the space station for the Expedition 42 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle until undocking and landing as scheduled in March 2015.
Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 43 crew to the station. TMA-16M was the 125th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first having launched in 1967.
Expedition 44 was the 44th expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M from the ISS with the Expedition 42/43 crew on 11 June 2015, and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-16M on 11 September 2015.
Soyuz MS-04 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 20 April 2017 to the ISS. It transported two members of the Expedition 52 crew to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-04 was the 133rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander and an American flight engineer. It was the first of the Soyuz MS series to rendezvous with the Station in approximately 6 hours, instead of the 2 day orbital rendezvous used for the previous launches. It was also the first Soyuz to launch with only 2 crew members since Soyuz TMA-2.
Sergey Valeryevich Prokopyev is a Russian cosmonaut. On June 6, 2018, he launched on his first flight into space aboard Soyuz MS-09 and spent 197 days in space as a flight engineer on Expedition 56/57. On September 21, 2022, he launched aboard Soyuz MS-22 and returned onboard Soyuz MS-23 on September 27, 2023.