Expedition 43
Long-duration mission to the International Space Station
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Expedition 43 was the 43rd expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced on 11 March 2015 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M, returning the crew of Expedition 42 to Earth and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M on 11 June 2015.
Promotional Poster | |
| Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
|---|---|
| Expedition | |
| Space station | International Space Station |
| Began | 11 March 2015 UTC |
| Ended | 11 June 2015 UTC |
| Arrived aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M |
| Departed aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-18M |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 6 |
| Members | Expedition 42/43: Anton Shkaplerov Samantha Cristoforetti Terry W. Virts Expedition 43/44: Gennady Padalka Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly |
 Expedition 43 mission patch  (l-r) Padalka, Kelly, Shkaplerov, Cristoforetti, Kornienko, Virts | |
The Expedition 43 crew spent an extra "bonus month" on board pending investigation of the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft failure.[1] On June 8, 2015 ISS adjusted its orbit to move to a safe distance from a piece of orbital space debris.[1]
This expedition also used the ISSpresso machine and tested a special cup designed to be drunk from in microgravity by using capillary flow.[2] This was a further development of a zero gravity cup invented by astronaut Donald Pettit and tested on ISS in 2008.[3][4] The new zero g coffee cup idea was further developed by a Fluid physicist at Portland State University among others.[5]
Crew
| Position | First Part (March 2015) |
Second Part (March 2015 to June 2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Commander |  Terry W. Virts, Jr., NASASecond and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 1 |  Anton Shkaplerov, RSASecond spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 2 |  Samantha Cristoforetti, ASI-ESAFirst spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 3 | Gennady Padalka, RSA Fifth and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 4 | Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA Second and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 5 | Scott Kelly, NASA Fourth and last spaceflight | |
- Source
- Spacefacts[6]
Yury Lonchakov was originally supposed to be the Flight Engineer 3. However, he resigned from the Russian Federal Space Agency on September 6, 2013, to take a position at Gazprom.[7] He was also originally supposed to be the commander of Expedition 44.
View of Earth
Cupola view
