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 |
Terry W. Virts, Jr.,
NASA Second and last spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 1 |
Anton Shkaplerov,
RSA Second spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 2 |
Samantha Cristoforetti,
ASI-
ESA First spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 3 |
Gennady Padalka,
RSA Fifth and last Spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 4 |
Mikhail Korniyenko,
RSA Second and last spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 5 |
Scott Kelly,
NASA 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.