ISS expedition 61

Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission:	ISS expedition 61
Crew:	6th
Rescue ships:	Soyuz MS-13 , Soyuz MS-15
Space station:	International space station
Start:	October 3, 2019, 07:37 UTC
Started by:	Decoupling from Soyuz MS-12
The End:	February 6, 2020, 05:50 UTC
Ended by:	Decoupling from Soyuz MS-15
Duration:	125d 22h 13min
Team photo
From left to right: Andrew Morgan, Alexander Skworzow, Luca Parmitano (commandant), Oleg Skripotschka, Jessica Meir and Christina Hammock Koch
navigation
Previous mission: ISS Expedition 60 Next mission: ISS Expedition 62

ISS Expedition 61 is the mission name for the 61st long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began with the decoupling of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the ISS on October 3, 2019 and ended with the decoupling of Soyuz MS-13 on February 6, 2020.

team

Main crew

• Luca Parmitano (2nd space flight), commander ( Italy / ESA , Soyuz MS-13 )
• Alexander Skworzow (3rd space flight), flight engineer ( Russia / Roskosmos , Soyuz MS-13)
• Andrew Morgan (1st spaceflight), flight engineer ( USA / NASA , Soyuz MS-13)
• Christina Hammock Koch (1st space flight), flight engineer (USA / NASA, Soyuz MS-12 )
• Oleg Skripotschka (3rd space flight), flight engineer (Russia / Roskosmos, Soyuz MS-15 )
• Jessica Meir (1st space flight), flight engineer (USA / NASA, Soyuz MS-15)

In the meantime, plans included the possibility of visiting other space travelers in the course of the first manned mission ( Boe-CFT ) of the new spacecraft CST-100 Starliner . However, postponements made this obsolete.

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.

Mission description

For the first time since 2009, the ISS was fully occupied with six space travelers at the start of an expedition because the feeder Soyuz MS-15 had already arrived before Expedition 61 began.

The day before the end of the expedition, Skripotschka took command. After the Soyuz MS-13 undocked with Skworzow, Parmitano and Koch, the ISS expedition 62 began .

External works

Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch (right) before their spacecraft mission, with (from left to right) Alexander Skworzow, Commander Luca Parmitano, Oleg Skripotschka and Andrew Morgan

Several maintenance work was carried out on the charging devices and batteries of the P6 photovoltaic module . The first two were conducted on October 6th and 11th, 2019 by Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch.

On October 18, 2019, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch exchanged a defective charging device. This mission attracted widespread attention worldwide as the first female-only spacecraft in history. In the following months, further work took place outside the station.

See also

• List of ISS expeditions
• List of spacemen on the International Space Station
• List of space exits
• List of manned space flights

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 61  - Collection of Images

• ISS-Expedition 61 on the website of NASA (English)
• ISS-Expedition 61 at Spacefacts.de
• US to Extend Use of Russia's Soyuz for ISS Missions Until April 2020 - Source. In: Sputnik News. February 12, 2019, accessed March 9, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Clark: Live coverage: Space station crew readies for return to Earth . Spaceflight Now, February 6, 2019.
2. ^ First of Five Power Upgrade Spacewalks This Month Wraps Up - Space Station. Retrieved October 19, 2019 (American English). 
3. ↑ NASA Astronauts Wrap Up Historic All-Woman Spacewalk - Space Station. Retrieved October 19, 2019 (American English).