ISS Expedition 63

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Mission emblem
ISS Expedition 63 Patch.png
Mission dates
Mission: ISS Expedition 63
Crew: 5 (temporarily up to 7)
Rescue ships: Soyuz MS-16
SpX-DM2
USCV-1 (planned)
Space station: ISS
Start: April 17, 2020, 03:53 UTC
Started by: Decoupling from Soyuz MS-15
The End: October 21, 2020 (planned)
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz MS-16
Duration: 187 days (planned)
Team photo
v. l. To the right: Chris Cassidy, Anatoli Iwanischin and Iwan Wagner
v. l. To the right: Chris Cassidy, Anatoli Iwanischin and Iwan Wagner
v. l. To the right: Douglas G. Hurley, Robert L. Behnken
v. l. To the right: Douglas G. Hurley, Robert L. Behnken
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ISS Expedition 64

ISS Expedition 63 is the mission name for the 63rd long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began with the decoupling of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft from the ISS on April 17, 2020 and is expected to end with the Soyuz MS-16 decoupling in October 2020.

team

Main crew

Since Expedition 20 in 2009, the core crew of the ISS has consisted of six space travelers, each participating in two successive expeditions. Due to delays in the completion of the new US spaceships Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner , the ISS has only been manned by at least three people since February 6, 2020.

The three-man regular team of Expedition 63 reached the space station a week before the start of the expedition with the Russian feeder flight Soyuz MS-16 :

At the end of May 2020, NASA's SpX-DM2 flight brought two more astronauts to the ISS. These were only part of Expedition 63 until the beginning of August 2020, as the spaceship used is designed for a maximum of 110 days of flight duration:

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

With a planned duration of a good six months, Expedition 63 is the longest since Expedition 17 in 2008.

Freight traffic

As the first supply flight during Expedition 63, the Russian space freighter Progress MS-14 reached the ISS on April 25, 2020 . A good two weeks later, the US freighter Cygnus NG-13 “Robert H. Lawrence” with the “ Canadarm ” gripper arm was uncoupled from the station and released for its return journey to Earth.

On May 25, the last copy of the Japanese supply spaceship H-2 Transfer Vehicle "Kounotori" docked with the HTV-9 mission . It brought 6.2 tons of cargo to the ISS, including the Solid Combustion Experiment Module device for investigating combustion processes in weightlessness and new lithium-ion batteries for powering the station. The HTV will in future be replaced by the newly developed HTV-X . Template: future / in 2 yearsThe Russian space ship Progress MS-13 cast off on July 8 and was replaced by Progress MS-15 on July 23.

Other planned flight movements are:

  • Casting off HTV-9 in August
  • Arrival of the US space freighter Cygnus NG-14 in October

An unmanned test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is also planned for the second half of the year . This can also bring smaller amounts of cargo to the ISS.

Space operations

Several spacecraft missions are planned on the ISS during Expedition 63 . Among other things, batteries in the S6 segment need to be replaced and upgrades made to the European Columbus module . Since at least one US astronaut is on board at least at times, Anatoly Iwanischin also tried using the American spacesuits to be on the safe side.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 63  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Touchdown! Expedition 62 Returns to Earth, Completes Station Mission . NASA, April 17, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ SMSR Integrated Master Schedule . NASA, April 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b Kirk Shireman: International Space Station Status (PDF, 52 MB), page 5. NASA, May 2020.
  4. ^ NASA, SpaceX to Launch First Astronauts to Space Station from US Since 2011 . NASA, April 17, 2020
  5. ↑ Stephen Clark: Cygnus departs space station, beginning extended experimental mission . Spaceflight Now, May 11, 2020.
  6. ↑ HTV-9 arrives at ISS on final mission . Nasaspaceflight.com, May 25, 2020.
  7. ↑ HTV9 payload . JAXA, last updated March 14, 2020, accessed May 26, 2020.
  8. ↑ TASS: Russia's Progress MS-13 cargo spacecraft buried in Pacific - Roscosmos. July 9, 2020, accessed on August 7, 2020 .
  9. ^ Joseph Navin, Chris Gebhardt: Progress MS-15 arrives at Station with eventful automated docking. nasaspaceflight.com, July 23, 2020, accessed August 7, 2020 .
  10. ^ Launch Schedule. Spaceflight Now, August 4, 2020, accessed August 7, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Marcel-Garcia Spacesuit Work and Heart Research Fill Crew Day . NASA ISS blog, April 29, 2020.
  12. ↑ Russian Cosmonauts May Conduct Spacewalk In US-Made Spacesuits In 2020 - Training Center . Urdu Point, October 28, 2019.