Expedition 66
Long-duration mission to the International Space Station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
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 | 3-10 |
| Members |
|
| EVAs | 4 |
| EVA duration | 25 hours, 31 minutes |
 Expedition 66 mission patch, resembling that of U.S. Route 66  Expedition 66 crew portrait | |
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 and last spaceflight |
Flight engineer | Off station | |||
 Akihiko Hoshide, JAXA Third spaceflight |
Flight engineer | Off station | |||
 Thomas Pesquet, ESASecond 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 | |||
