ISS expedition 56

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission emblem
ISS Expedition 56 Patch.svg
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 56
Crew: 6th
Rescue ships: Soyuz MS-08 , Soyuz MS-09
Space station: International space station
Start: June 3, 2018, 09:16 UTC
Started by: Decoupling from Soyuz MS-07
The End: October 4, 2018, 07:57 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz MS-08
Duration: 122d 22h 41min
Number of EVAs : 2
Total length of the EVAs: 14h 35min
Team photo
From left to right: Oleg Artemjew, Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold, Sergei Prokopjew, Alexander Gerst and Serena Auñón-Chancellor
From left to right: Oleg Artemjew, Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold, Sergei Prokopjew, Alexander Gerst and Serena Auñón-Chancellor
navigation
Previous
mission:
ISS Expedition 55 		Next
mission:
ISS Expedition 57

ISS Expedition 56 is the mission name for the 56th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began with the disengagement of the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft from the ISS on June 3, 2018 and ended with the disengagement of Soyuz MS-08 on October 4, 2018.

team

Taken over from ISS Expedition 55 :

Additionally from June 8th 2018:

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 two Soyuz feeder spaceships MS-08 and MS-09 (see there) are considered substitute crews for Expedition 56. As a rule, these crews are deployed two missions later.

Mission description

Recording of the crew on June 8, 2018

On June 8, 2018, five days after the start of the expedition, the Soyuz MS-09 feeder spaceship docked with the ISS after a two-day flight; the regular crew was increased again to six people. Andrew Feustel handed over command to Alexander Gerst on October 3, 2018 and returned to Earth the following day with Oleg Artemjew and Serena Auñón. The ISS expedition 56 also ended with the undocking of MS-08.

Freight traffic

Dragon CRS-15 just before docking

The Dragon CRS-15 spaceship reached the ISS on July 2nd and was captured by Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold using the Canadarm2 robotic arm . The transporter was docked on the Earth-facing side of Harmony at 13:52 UTC .

On July 10 at 01:30 UTC, Progress MS-09 docked with the Pirs module. The freighter is scheduled to remain connected to the ISS for six months before being decoupled when loaded with waste and burned up over the South Pacific at the end of January 2019.

Cygnus CRS OA-9 (called "SSJR Thompson") was decoupled from the ISS on July 15.

On August 3rd, the Dragon CRS-15 was detached from the Harmony module using the Canadarm2 robotic arm and placed in its own orbit. The splashing in the Pacific took place on the same day.

On August 23, Progress MS-08 was disconnected from the docking port of the Zvezda module.

The captured HTV-7 ( Kounotori 7 ) shortly before docking

On September 27th, HTV-7 reached the station. Commander Drew Feustel and engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor attached the spaceship to the earth-facing side of the Harmony module using the Canadarm2 gripper arm .

External works

Andrew Feustel on the first spacecraft mission

On June 14, Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold attached two retaining clips and some high-resolution cameras to the Harmony module as part of an EVA . Afterwards they exchanged a camera on the starboard side of the central lattice structure ITS .

Oleg Artemjew on the second spacecraft mission

On August 15, Oleg Artemjew and Sergei Prokopjew left the station through the airlock in the Pirs module . The cosmonauts catapulted four small satellites in its own orbit, installed antennas and cables on the module Zvezda and hid experiments. They also installed the ICARUS experimental system .

Leak in the Soyuz spaceship

On August 29, while the crew was sleeping, flight control noticed a slight but unusual pressure drop in the space station. Since there was no imminent danger, the crew was not awakened. The next day, the astronauts were able to determine the location of the pressure drop: the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft , with which Prokopjew, Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor came to the ISS in June, and which is docked with the hatch open to the Rassvet module. In the orbital module, the astronauts discovered a small hole about 2 mm in diameter, photographed it, and temporarily closed it. There was disagreement about how to deal with the leak. NASA and ISS commander Drew Feustel advocated a close investigation in order to subsequently find a method to permanently seal the hole. However, since the leak was in a Russian spaceship, Roskosmos prevailed with the suggestion to plug the hole immediately, which the cosmonauts Artemjew and Prokopjew did during the day.

Apparently the hole was not caused by a micrometeorite impact or a collision with space debris. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozin announced that it was a drilling from the inside. Traces show how the drill slipped over the material. It is a question of honor for RKK Energija to find the person responsible, to clarify whether it is a mistake or intent and where it happened: on earth or in space.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 56  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Gebhardt: Soyuz MS-08 lands as station crew to reduce to five people . Nasaspaceflight.com, October 4, 2018.
  2. ↑ Stephen Clark: Cosmonauts plug small air leak on the International Space Station. Spaceflight Now, August 30, 2018, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b Chris Gebhardt: Soyuz / Station atmosphere leak no threat to Crew - Investigation focusing on mystery drill hole. nasaspaceflight.com, August 30, 2018, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  4. ^ William Harwood: Russians investigate cause of Soyuz leak, focus on human error. Spaceflight Now, September 4, 2018, accessed September 6, 2018 .