 Promotional poster | |
| Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / Roscosmos |
| Mission duration | 164 days, 6 hours and 7 minutes |
| Expedition | |
| Space station | International Space Station |
| Began | 17 October 2021, 01:14 UTC [1] |
| Ended | 30 March 2022, 07:21:03 [1] |
| Arrived aboard | Soyuz MS-18 SpaceX Crew-2 Soyuz MS-19 SpaceX Crew-3 Soyuz MS-21 |
| Departed aboard | SpaceX Crew-2 Soyuz MS-19 |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 7-10 |
| Members |
|
| EVAs | 4 |
| EVA duration | 25 hours, 31 minutes |
 Expedition 66 mission patch, resembling that of U.S. Route 66  Expedition 66 crew portrait | |
Expedition 66 was the 66th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The mission began after the departure of Soyuz MS-18 on 17 October 2021. [2] It was commanded by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the fourth European astronaut and first French astronaut to command the ISS [3] until 8 November 2021 when Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who arrived aboard Soyuz MS-19, took over his command. [4]
Pesquet was transported to the ISS on SpaceX Crew-2 in April 2021, joined by NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. [5] Crew-2 from Expedition 65 extended their tour of duty on the ISS to become part of Expedition 66, [6] along with Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who both launched on Soyuz MS-18 and returned to Earth on Soyuz MS-19, following their extended mission. Russian cosmonaut Shkaplerov launched on Soyuz MS-19, along with two participants in the joint film project between Roscosmos and Channel One, The Challenge: film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild.
SpaceX Crew-3, launched 10 November 2021, carried NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer to the ISS. [7] At the end of Expedition 66, they remained on the ISS as part of Expedition 67 while Dubrov and Vande Hei returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-19. [8] However, continued international collaboration has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia. [9]
