The International Space Station returned to its full crew compliment of six people after the three-person Soyuz MS-08 docked with the orbiting outpost to join the ongoing Expedition 55.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold docked their Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft at 3:40 p.m. EDT (19:40 GMT) March 23, 2018 while ISS was flying 408 kilometers over Serbia.
Read MoreThree members of the International Space Station’s Expedition 54 crew returned to Earth on Feb. 27, 2018. Riding in their Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft, the trio blazed through the atmosphere and landed on the snow-covered Kazakh Steppe in Kazakhstan.
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei of NASA returned after spending 168 days in space aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 53 and 54.
Read MoreThe population of the International Space Station returned to six people when Soyuz MS-07 with three fresh crew members autonomously docked with the outpost’s Rassvet module. Contact between the two vehicles occurred at 3:39 a.m. EST (08:39 GMT) Dec. 19, 2017.
Just over two hours later, at 5:55 a.m. EST (10:55 GMT), the hatches between the two spacecraft were opened and the Soyuz’s three-man crew entered to join Expedition 54.
Read Moreust three days after one trio left the International Space Station, another launched toward it. A Soyuz-FG rocket lofted the Soyuz MS-07 mission spacecraft into orbit where it and its crew will spend some two days catching up with the outpost.
Liftoff took place at 1:21 p.m. local Kazakh time (2:21 a.m. EST / 07:21 GMT) Dec. 17, 2017, from Pad 1/5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Read MoreReturning from the black of space to the cold of Kazakhstan, three International Space Station crew members have returned to Earth after 138 days and 17 hours in space. Soyuz MS-05 landed at 2:37 p.m. Kazakh time (3:37 a.m. EST / 08:37 GMT) Dec. 14, 2017.
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy landed on the Steppe of Kazakh in their Soyuz MS-05 capsule, not far from where they launched to space some five months earlier on July 28, 2017.
Read MoreAstronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station have now celebrated 18 Thanksgivings in orbit since 2000. This year, it was Expedition 53’s turn to share their thoughts and memories of the holiday.
Read MoreAfter spending two days catching up with the International Space Station, an automated Russian cargo freighter rendezvoused and docked with the outpost to supply the Expedition 53 crew with food and supplies.
Progress MS-07 docked with the Pirs module on the Russian Orbital Segment of the space station. Contact came at 7:04 a.m. EDT (11:04 GMT) Oct. 16, 2017. Once hatches between the two spacecraft are open, the crew will begin to transfer the pressurized cargo into the outpost.
Read MoreLess than a week after completing one spacewalk, International Space Station Expedition 53 astronauts Randy Bresnik and Mark Vande Hei set out on another extravehicular activity. This excursion, U.S. EVA-45, lasted about 6.5 hours.
At 7:56 a.m. EDT (11:56 GMT) Oct. 10, 2017, the two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits over to battery power, officially starting U.S. EVA-45. The primary task of the spacewalk was to replace a faulty camera and begin the process of lubricating the new Latching End Effector on the robotic Canadarm2.
Read MoreExpedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei wrapped up the first of three spacewalks planned for the next two weeks. The October 5, 2017, spacewalk was nearly seven hours long and saw the replacement of one of the two Latching End Effectors on the International Space Station’s robotic arm.
Read MoreThe population of the International Space Station returned to six people as the crew of Soyuz MS-06 docked with and entered the outpost. The spacecraft hard-mated with its docking port at about 10:55 p.m. EDT Sept. 12 (02:55 GMT Sept. 13), 2017.
About 2 hours later, at 1:08 a.m. EDT (05:08 GMT), the hatches between the Soyuz and space station were opened allowing Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba to float inside.
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