Expedition 59

Last updated

ISS Expedition 59
Expedition 59 crew poster.jpg
Promotional Poster
Mission typeISS Expedition
Mission duration101d 22h 24m
Expedition
Space station International Space Station
Began15 March 2019 01:01 UTC [1]
Ended24 June 2019 23:25 UTC [2]
Arrived aboard Soyuz MS-11
Soyuz MS-12
Departed aboard Soyuz MS-11
Crew
Crew size6
Members
EVAs 4
EVA duration25h 55min
ISS Expedition 59 Patch.svg
Expedition 59 mission patch
Expedition 59 crew portrait.jpg
(l-r) Saint-Jacques, McClain, Kononenko, Ovchinin, Hague and Koch 

Expedition 59 was the 59th Expedition to the International Space Station. It started with the arrival of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft carrying Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch, [3] joining Oleg Kononenko, David Saint-Jacques and Anne McClain who transferred from Expedition 58. The expedition formally began on March 15, 2019 (March 14 in the Americas). [1] Ovchinin and Hague were originally meant to fly to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-10, but returned to Earth minutes after takeoff due to a contingency abort. [4] The expedition formally ended with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft carrying Kononenko, Saint-Jacques and McClain on 24 June 2019; Ovchinin, Hague and Koch transferred to Expedition 60. [2]

Contents

Crew

PositionCrew member
Commander Flag of Russia.svg Oleg Kononenko, RSA
Fourth spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg David Saint-Jacques, CSA
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 Flag of the United States.svg Anne McClain, NASA
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3 Flag of Russia.svg Aleksey Ovchinin, RSA
Third [lower-alpha 1] spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4 Flag of the United States.svg Nick Hague, NASA
Second [lower-alpha 1] spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5 Flag of the United States.svg Christina Koch, NASA
First spaceflight

Spacewalks

EVA #SpacewalkersStart (UTC)End (UTC)Duration
Expedition 59
EVA 1
Flag of the United States.svg Anne McClain

Flag of the United States.svg Nick Hague

22 March 2019
12:01
22 March 2019
6:40
6 hours, 39 minutes
McClain and Hague installed adapter plates while Dextre swaps the batteries between spacewalks. Get aheads included removing debris from the Unity Module in preparation for the arrival of Cygnus NG-11 in April, stowing tools for the repair of the flex hose rotary coupler, and securing tiebacks on the solar array blanket boxes. This spacewalk was originally going to be carried out by European astronaut Alexander Gerst and Hague as part of Expedition 57, although it was delayed due to the Soyuz MS-10 launch abort. [5]
Expedition 59
EVA 2
Flag of the United States.svg Nick Hague

Flag of the United States.svg Christina Hammock-Koch

29 March 2019

11:42

29 March 2019

18:27

6 hours, 45 minutes
Hague and Koch finished the work of the first spacewalk and installed the final three adapter plates on the other side of the P4 Truss. The crew also transferred some tools and installed a grapple bar on the flex hose rotary coupler. Between spacewalks, Dextre will change the batteries and the exposed pallet will be loaded onto HTV-8 to be jettisoned into space where it will burn up. One of the batteries malfunctioned and will be removed by Dextre and discarded. Dextre will also replace a Battery Discharge Unit and will bring the failed unit which was damaged by the short inside where it will be returned to earth on SpaceX CRS-17. Until it is repaired P4 will use the old batteries left on the station as spares. Get aheads included installing gap spanners and breaking torque on the P6 batteries in preparation for their replacement by Expedition 62 crew members this summer. Hague also inspected sockets on P6 so the foot restraints could be attached. This spacewalk was supposed to be done by Anne McClain and Christina Koch as an all female spacewalk but because of problems with Christina's suit and the spare suit not ready or properly sized Anne McClain will have to sit this spacewalk out and will have to go out with David on the next spacewalk. [6] This spacewalk became the first for Koch who became the 14th woman to walk in space. [7]
Expedition 59
EVA 3
Flag of the United States.svg Anne McClain

Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg David Saint-Jacques

8 April 2019

11:31

8 April 2019

18:00

6 hours 30 minutes
McClain and Saint Jacques routed cables to be used as a redundant power supply for Canadarm2. The crew installed studs on the Columbus Module in preparation for the installation of an exposed facility. The crew removed an adapter plate and reinstalled an old set of batteries as spares to replace a failed battery that malfunctioned on the last spacewalk. Saint Jacques became the first Canadian crew member to walk in space and the fourth Canadian to do a spacewalk since Chris Hadfield [8]
Expedition 59
EVA 4
Flag of Russia.svg Oleg Kononenko

Flag of Russia.svg Aleksey Ovichinin

29 May 2019

15:42

29 May 2019

21:43

6 hours 1 minute
Kononenko and Ovichinin removed experiments from the Pirs docking compartment and cleaned the windows. They also installed a handrail to connect Zarya to Poisk and re-positioned the Plume Measuring Unit. The crew then moved to the Zvesda Service Module and removed and jettisoned the Plasma Monitoring Units. Before they closed the hatch they sent a video of themselves and sang happy birthday in Russian to Alexei Leonov who was the first spacewalker and was celebrating his 85th birthday. [9]

Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS

Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 59:

Spacecraft
- ISS flight number
CountryMissionLauncherLaunch
(UTC)
Docked/Berthed
(UTC)
Undocked/Unberthed
(UTC)
Duration (Docked)Deorbit
Progress MS-11
- ISS 72P
Flag of Russia.svg  Russia LogisticsSoyuz-2.1a4 Apr 2019, 11:01:354 Apr 2019, 14:2229 Jul 2019, 10:44115d 20h 22m29 Jul 2019, 13:50
Cygnus NG-11
- CRS NG-11
Flag of the United States.svg  United States LogisticsAntares 23017 Apr 2019, 20:46:0719 Apr 2019, 09:286 Aug 2019, 16:15109d 6h 47m6 Dec 2019, 15:28
SpaceX CRS-17
- SpX-17
Flag of the United States.svg  United States LogisticsFalcon 94 May 2019, 06:486 May 2019, 13:333 Jun 2019, 16:0128d 2h 28m3 Jun 2019, 20:56

Mission summary

Researchers on Expedition 59 will conduct experimentation on tissue chips since the microgravity environment can replicate the effects of aging and disease. The expedition will also conduct experiments on regolith simulants, Earth's atmospheric carbon cycle, and Astrobee robots designed to conduct routine chores aboard the ISS. [10]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Counting the aborted flight of Soyuz MS-10, even though this did not quite cross the Kármán line. This matches NASA's count, though RSA follows the Kármán line definition. [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 Moran, Noah (March 14, 2019). "Soyuz Docked to Space Station". NASA Blogs.
  2. 1 2 "NASA Astronaut Anne McClain, Crewmates Return from Space Station Mission". NASA. June 24, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Gebhardt, Chris (March 14, 2019). "Soyuz MS-12 docks with the Space Station – NASASpaceFlight.com". NASASpaceflight.com.
  4. Strickland, Ashley (March 15, 2019). "New crew launches to space station". cnn.com. Cable News Network . Retrieved March 17, 2019. Hague and Ovchinin are getting a second chance after their original October 11 launch failed. Shortly after launch, there was an anomaly with the booster, and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft, according to a NASA statement.
  5. "Spacewalkers Complete Battery Swaps for Station Power Upgrades". March 22, 2019.
  6. "First Female Spacewalk Canceled Due To Lack Of Medium Sized Spacesuits Twitter Reacts".
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  9. "Two Cosmonauts Wrap up the Fourth Spacewalk at the Station This Year – Space Station". May 29, 2019.
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