Mission type | Long-duration mission to the ISS |
---|---|
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 |
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 to command the ISS and first French astronaut to command the orbital laboratory [3] until 8 November 2021 when Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who arrived aboard Soyuz MS-19 and 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]
Flight | Astronaut | First part (17 October – 8 November 2021) |
Second part (8–11 November 2021) [10] |
Third part (11 November 2021 – 18 March 2022) |
Fourth part (18 March – 30 March 2022) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soyuz MS-19 |
Anton Shkaplerov,
Roscosmos Fourth and last spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | Commander | ||
Pyotr Dubrov,
Roscosmos First spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | ||||
Mark T. Vande Hei,
NASA Second spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | ||||
SpaceX Crew-2 |
Shane Kimbrough,
NASA Third and last spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | Off Station | ||
Megan McArthur,
NASA Second spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | Off Station | |||
Akihiko Hoshide,
JAXA Third spaceflight |
Flight Engineer | Off Station | |||
Thomas Pesquet,
ESA Second spaceflight |
Commander | Off Station | |||
SpaceX Crew-3 |
Raja Chari,
NASA First spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | ||
Thomas Marshburn,
NASA Third spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | |||
Matthias Maurer,
ESA First spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | |||
Kayla Barron,
NASA First spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | |||
Soyuz MS-21 |
Oleg Artemyev,
Roscosmos Third spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | ||
Denis Matveev,
Roscosmos First spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer | |||
Sergey Korsakov,
Roscosmos First spaceflight |
Off Station | Flight Engineer |