Expedition 68: Welcoming New Crew Members | International Space Station

Expedition 68: Welcoming New Crew Members | International Space Station

Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi from the United Arab Emirates is pictured inside Japan's Kibo laboratory module during his first week aboard the International Space Station.

Clockwise from top, are Expedition 68 Commander Sergey Prokopyev with Flight Engineers Andrey Fedyaev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina, all from Roscosmos (Russia).

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen is pictured conducting maintenance activities during his first week aboard the International Space Station. This is Bowen's fourth visit to the orbital outpost.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Warren "Woody" Hoburg is pictured inside the Kibo laboratory module during his first week aboard the International Space Station. In the back, is NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio who has been aboard the station since Sept. 21, 2022.

From left, are Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Anna Kikina of Roscosmos (Russia), Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) posing for a fun portrait inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module.

Clockwise from top, are Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann from NASA, Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos (Russia) posing for a fun portrait inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module.

The newly-expanded International Space Station crew of 11 members kicked off a busy work week  conducting a variety of research and visiting vehicle activities. Meanwhile, four Expedition 68 crew members are also getting ready to complete their mission and return to Earth.

New station residents Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg of NASA, who commanded and piloted the SpaceX Crew-6 mission respectively, reviewed docked Crew Dragon procedures first thing on Monday. The duo, along Crew-6 mission specialist Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos (Russia), automatically docked Crew Dragon Endeavour to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 1:40 a.m. EST on Friday, March 3, 2023. The quartet will live and work aboard the orbital outpost for six months.

The four newest crew members continue getting up to speed with life on orbit familiarizing themselves with space station operations and systems. The foursome also spent Monday, March 6 installing new space biology hardware, replacing electronic components, and updating emergency procedures for the expanded crew.

The orbiting crew will soon return to a seven-member status when four station residents finalize their mission that began last year. Flight Engineers Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, along with Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, launched to the station as the SpaceX Crew-5 mission on Oct. 5, 2022, joining the Expedition 68 crew one day later. All four homebound crew members have begun their handover activities. They will enter the Crew Dragon Endurance, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port, then splash down off the coast of Florida on a soon-to-be-announced date.

The next Dragon mission to the station will be the SpaceX CRS-27 resupply mission scheduled for March 14, 2023, at 8:30 p.m. EDT. The Dragon cargo craft will automatically dock about 24 hours later to the Harmony port vacated by the Crew Dragon Endurance when it undocks a few days earlier.

Follow Expedition 68 crew updates at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Dates: March 3-5, 2023

Release Date: March 8, 2023

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