Expedition 43

Expedition 43
Promotional Poster
Mission typeLong-duration expedition
Expedition
Space stationInternational Space Station
Began11 March 2015 (2015-03-11Z) UTC
Ended11 June 2015 (2015-06-12Z) UTC
Arrived aboardSoyuz TMA-15M
Soyuz TMA-16M
Departed aboardSoyuz TMA-15M
Soyuz TMA-16M
Soyuz TMA-18M
Crew
Crew size6
MembersExpedition 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

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.

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 United States Terry W. Virts, Jr., NASA
Second and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Anton Shkaplerov, RSA
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 Italy Samantha Cristoforetti, ASI-ESA
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3 Russia Gennady Padalka, RSA
Fifth and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4 Russia Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA
Second and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5 United States 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

View of Earth taken during ISS Expedition 43

Cupola view

View of Earth from the Cupola during Expedition 43

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Sharkey, Jim (11 June 2015). "Expedition 43 crew completes mission with successful landing in Kazakhstan". Spaceflight Insider. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  2. ^ "National Coffee Day: Java in Zero-G". 29 September 2015.
  3. ^ Charlie White. "Astronaut invents coffee cup for a weightless cup o' joe". Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  4. ^ "Space Coffee | Science Mission Directorate".
  5. ^ "Space Coffee | Science Mission Directorate".
  6. ^ "Upcoming ISS expeditions". Spacefacts. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  7. ^ "Russian cosmonaut set for space station mission resigns". UPI. Space Daily. 5 September 2013.
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