ISS Expedition 46

Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission:	ISS Expedition 46
Crew:	6th
Rescue ships:	Soyuz TMA-18M , Soyuz TMA-19M
Space station:	International space station
Start:	December 11, 2015, 09:49 UTC
Started by:	Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-17M
The End:	March 2, 2016, 01:02 UTC
Ended by:	Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-18M
Duration:	81 d, 15 h, 13 min
Number of EVAs :	3
Total length of the EVAs:	12h 39min
Team photo
v. l. To the right: Scott Kelly, Sergei Volkov, Michail Kornijenko, Timothy Kopra, Timothy Peake and Yuri Malentschenko
navigation
Previous mission: ISS Expedition 45 Next mission: ISS Expedition 47

ISS Expedition 46 is the mission name for the 46th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began with the disengagement of the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft from the ISS on December 11, 2015. The end was marked by the disengagement of the Soyuz TMA-18M on March 2, 2016.

team

Adopted from ISS Expedition 45 :

• Scott Joseph Kelly (4th space flight), commander, ( USA / NASA , Soyuz TMA-16M / Soyuz TMA-18M )
• Michail Borissowitsch Kornijenko (2nd space flight), flight engineer, ( Russia / Roskosmos , Soyuz TMA-16M / Soyuz TMA-18M)
• Sergei Alexandrowitsch Wolkow (3rd space flight), flight engineer, (Russia / Roscosmos, Soyuz TMA-18M)

Additionally from December 15, 2015:

• Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (6th space flight), flight engineer, (Russia / Roskosmos, Soyuz TMA-19M )
• Timothy Peake (1st Spaceflight), Flight Engineer, ( United Kingdom / ESA , Soyuz TMA-19M)
• Timothy Lennart Kopra (2nd spaceflight), flight engineer, (USA / NASA, Soyuz TMA-19M)

About a day and a half before the Soyuz TMA-18M undocked with Volkov, Korniyenko and Kelly, Kopra took over command of the ISS . Together with Malenchenko and Peake, he formed the initial crew of the subsequent Expedition 47 .

Substitute team

Since Expedition 20, no official replacement team has been announced due to the permanent training for the six-person crew. Unofficially, the backup crews of the respective feeder spaceships (see there) are considered substitutes. As a rule, these crews are then deployed two missions later. However, the Soyuz TMA-18M replacement team was postponed due to the one-year ISS mission.

Mission description

For the first time on the ISS, crew members with Michail Kornijenko and Scott Kelly were extended to one year in order to better study the effects of long-term weightlessness with regard to a manned flight to Mars . The two flew to the ISS with Soyuz TMA-16M and completed ISS expeditions 43 , 44 and 45 . After the end of Expedition 46, Korniyenko and Kelly flew back to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-18M .

Freight traffic

The transporter Progress M-28M (Flight 60P), which had been docked at the station since early July 2015, undocked from the station on December 19 at 7:35 UTC and then entered the earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Progress MS-01 (flight 62P) automatically docked with the Pirs module on December 23rd . There were 2.8 tons of cargo on board. The freighter had been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome two days earlier. It was the first Progress spaceship of the new MS generation, which differs from the previous version, among other things, through the new course NA approach system.

On February 19, the Cygnus freighter left the ISS after six months. The freighter had previously been loaded by the astronauts with garbage and objects that were no longer needed and then separated from the Unity module by ground control using the Canadarm2 gripper arm . The astronauts Kelly and Kopra then released the freighter at 12:26 UTC. The re-entry over the Pacific was controlled by Orbital ATK , the maker of the Cygnus freighter.

External works

Timothy Peake in his field

On December 21st, Scott Kelly and Timothy Kopra performed an unscheduled spacecraft mission . They released a set brake on a mobile transporter on the rail system and were thus able to secure the area for the next cargo transporter (Progress MS-02 - ISS flight P62), which started on the same day. After that, Kelly and Kopra laid cables for new missions.

On January 15th, Kopra performed the first spacecraft of 2016 with Timothy Peake. You should replace a failed voltage converter. While this succeeded, the exit had to be canceled prematurely. In the case of copra, water had collected in the helmet and so the mission was then canceled. Peake was the first British citizen to undertake an EVA.

On February 3, Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Volkov got out through the lock of the Pirs module. The two cosmonauts took samples from the outer surface of the hatch and from the area of ​​the drive cover on Zvezda .

See also

• List of unmanned missions to the International Space Station
• List of space exits
• List of spacemen

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 46  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• ISS-Expedition 46 at Spacefacts.de
• ISS Expedition 46 on the website of NASA (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ After nearly a year in space, Scott Kelly craves human contact . CTV News, February 29, 2016.
2. ↑ Mark Garcia: Russian Cargo Spaceship Departs Station. NASA, December 19, 2015, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Mark Garcia: Fourth Russian Cargo Ship This Year Docks to Station. NASA, December 23, 2015, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Mark Garcia: Spaceship Takes Out Trash Before One-Year Crew Goes Home. NASA, February 19, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Mark Garcia: Astronauts Make Quick Work of Short Spacewalk. NASA, December 21, 2015, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Mark Garcia: Spacewalk Ends Early After Water Detected in Helmet. NASA, January 15, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Mark Garcia: Second Spacewalk of Year Complete. NASA, February 3, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 .