Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
---|---|
Mission duration | 125d 22h 12m |
Expedition | |
Space station | International Space Station |
Began | 3 October 2019, 07:37:32 UTC [1] [2] |
Ended | 6 February 2020, 05:50:28 UTC |
Arrived aboard | Soyuz MS-12 Soyuz MS-13 Soyuz MS-15 |
Departed aboard | Soyuz MS-13 |
Crew | |
Crew size | 6 |
Members |
|
EVAs | 9 [2] |
EVA duration | 54h 27m [2] |
Expedition 61 mission patch From left: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, astronaut Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch. |
Expedition 61 was the 61st Expedition to the International Space Station, which began on 3 October 2019 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. [1] The Expedition was commanded by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who became the third European and first Italian astronaut to command the ISS. [3] Parmitano, along with his Soyuz MS-13 colleagues Aleksandr Skvortsov [3] and Andrew Morgan, [3] and Christina Koch from Soyuz MS-12, [4] transferred over from Expedition 60. They were joined by Oleg Skripochka [4] and Jessica Meir, [4] who launched on 25 September 2019 on board Soyuz MS-15. [4]
Position | Crew member |
---|---|
Commander | Luca Parmitano, ESA Second spaceflight |
Flight Engineer 1 | Aleksandr Skvortsov, RSA Third and last spaceflight |
Flight Engineer 2 | Andrew Morgan, NASA First spaceflight |
Flight Engineer 3 | Christina Koch, NASA First spaceflight |
Flight Engineer 4 | Oleg Skripochka, RSA Third spaceflight |
Flight Engineer 5 | Jessica Meir, NASA First spaceflight |
According to a Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) document obtained by NASAspaceflight.com in June 2019, Expedition 61 was tentatively scheduled to see two visits from Commercial Crew Development spacecraft. [5] However, schedule slippages meant these visits will not occur.
Expedition 61 crew conducted nine spacewalks, more than in any other increment in the history of the ISS. [6]
Four spacewalks were conducted to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The repairs were conducted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan. Both of them were assisted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who operated the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the Station. The spacewalks were described as the "most challenging since Hubble repairs". [7] [6] [8]
There were multiple spacewalks in order to repair and improve ISS batteries. On 18 October 2019 Christina Koch and Jessica Meir took the first all female spacewalk in history. [9]
Thomas Henry "Tom" Marshburn is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three spaceflights to the International Space Station and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk at 61 years old.
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.
Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov is a former Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights.
Colonel Luca Parmitano is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a Colonel and test pilot for the Italian Air Force. He is the first Italian to command the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 61.
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-10M was a 2013 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 37 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-10M is the 119th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, the first flight launching in 1967. The Soyuz remained on board the space station for the Expedition 38/39 increment to serve as an emergency escape vehicle.
In 2011 NASA opened applications for Astronaut Group 21. The team was announced in June 2013 after a year and a half long search. With four men and four women, the class of 2013 had the highest percentage of female finalists. According to NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins, "it's… a reflection of how many really talented women are in science and engineering these days." NASA received a total of over 6,300 applications, which made it the second highest number received at the time.
Jessica Ulrika Meir is an American NASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following postdoctoral research in comparative physiology at the University of British Columbia. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 4 crew. In 2013, she was selected by NASA to Astronaut Group 21. In 2016, Meir participated in ESA CAVES, a training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. Meir launched on September 25, 2019, to the ISS onboard Soyuz MS-15, where she served as a flight Engineer during Expedition 61 and 62. On October 18, 2019, Meir and Christina Koch were the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk.
Tyler Nicklaus "Nick" Hague is a United States Space Force colonel and a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. Selected to be a flight engineer on the International Space Station, his first launch was on Soyuz MS-10, which aborted shortly after take-off on October 11, 2018. His second launch, on March 14, 2019, was successful, taking him and his fellow Soyuz MS-12 crew members to join ISS Expedition 59/60.
Christina Hammock Koch is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering at North Carolina State University. She also did advanced study while working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Just before becoming an astronaut, she served at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as station chief for American Samoa.
Andrew Richard "Drew" Morgan is a NASA astronaut from the class of 2013.
Expedition 58 was the 58th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on December 20, 2018 with the departure of the Expedition 57 crew. It was commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, with astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques as flight engineers; the trio launched on board Soyuz MS-11 on December 3, 2018, marking the 100th orbital launch of the year.
Hazzaa AlMansoori (Arabic: هَزَّاع ٱلْمَنْصُوْرِي, romanized: Hazzāʿ Al-Manṣūrī, surname also spelled "Al Mansoori", full name Hazzaa Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansoori is an Emirati astronaut and the first person from the United Arab Emirates in space. In 2019, he embarked on the UAE's first scientific mission to the International Space Station. The mission carried the slogan 'Zayed's Ambition', making the UAE the 19th country worldwide, and the first country in the Arab region, to travel to the ISS. He also became the back-up astronaut for Sultan Al Neyadi for the UAE's second mission to the ISS, which is the longest Arab space mission. Previously, he was the UAE's youngest F-16 fighter pilot.
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, joining Oleg Kononenko, David Saint-Jacques and Anne McClain who transferred from Expedition 58. The expedition formally began on March 15, 2019. 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. 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.
Expedition 60 was the 60th Expedition to the International Space Station, which began on 24 June 2019 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft. The expedition was commanded by Aleksey Ovchinin, who transferred from Expedition 59 together with American flight engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch. They were joined by Aleksandr Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan, who arrived on Soyuz MS-13 on 20 July 2019. The expedition ended on 3 October 2019, when Soyuz MS-12 undocked from the station and Koch, Skvortsov, Parmitano and Morgan transferred to Expedition 61.
Expedition 64 was the 64th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) that began on 21 October 2020 with the undocking and departure of Soyuz MS-16. The expedition started with the three crew members who launched onboard Soyuz MS-17 and reached its full complement with the arrival of SpaceX Crew-1, the first operational flight of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). As Crew-1 consists of a crew of four instead of three like the Soyuz, Expedition 64 marks the beginning of operations for crews of seven on the ISS. In the final week of the mission, Soyuz MS-18 and its three person crew joined the mission. The expedition ended on 17 April 2021 with the departure of Soyuz MS-17.
Sergey Vladimirovich Kud-Sverchkov is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2010 by Roscosmos. He made his first spaceflight in 2020 aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for ISS Expedition 63/64.
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 with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti taking over as ISS commander and ended upon the uncrewed departure of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on 28 March 2023.