Expedition 66

Expedition 66

Promotional poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
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	Soyuz MS-18 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	Expedition 65/66: Shane Kimbrough Megan McArthur Akihiko Hoshide Thomas Pesquet[a] Anton Shkaplerov Expedition 64/65/66: Pyotr Dubrov Mark T. Vande Hei Expedition 66/67: Raja Chari Thomas Marshburn Matthias Maurer[b] Kayla Barron Oleg Artemyev Denis Matveev Sergey Korsakov
EVAs	4
EVA duration	25 hours 31 minutes
Expedition 66 mission patch, resembling that of U.S. Route 66 Expedition 66 crew portrait ISS expeditions

The crews from Expedition 66 crew (2nd and 3rd row) with non-expedition Soyuz MS-20 crew (1st row).

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 and first French astronaut to command the ISS^[3] until 8 November 2021 when Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who arrived aboard Soyuz MS-19, 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]

Crew

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  – 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 and last 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 Only spaceflight	Off Station			Flight Engineer
	Sergey Korsakov, Roscosmos First spaceflight	Off Station			Flight Engineer

Notes

1. The European portion of SpaceX Crew-2 is called Alpha and is headed by Thomas Pesquet.
2. The European portion of SpaceX Crew-3 is called Cosmic Kiss, which is headed by Matthias Maurer.

References

1. "ISS Expedition 66". spacefacts.de. 6 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
2. "NASA Television Upcoming Events". 16 October 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
3. York, Joanna (2021-03-19). "French astronaut next International Space Station commander". www.connexionfrance.com. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
4. "Space Launch Now - ISS Expedition 66 Change of Command Ceremony".
5. Gohd, Chelsea (23 April 2021). "SpaceX's Crew-2 launch lights up the predawn sky with a spectacular show (photos)". Space.com. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
6. "Alpha 2021" (PDF). esamultimedia.esa.int. European Space Agency. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
7. "NASA, SpaceX Adjust Crew-2 Station Departure Date". 8 November 2021.
8. "Soyuz MS-19 to send a "movie crew" to ISS". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
9. Witze, Alexandra (11 March 2022). "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is redrawing the geopolitics of space". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00727-x. PMID 35277688. S2CID 247407886. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
10. "NASA SpaceX Crew-2 to Discuss Station Mission, Upcoming Splashdown". NASA. 4 November 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-05.