Expedition 68 is the 68th long-duration expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

. The expedition began upon the departure of

Soyuz MS-21 Soyuz MS-21 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) with a crew of three launched from Baikonur on 18 March 2022. The launch was previously planned for 30 March 2022, but in the provisional flight manifest prep ...

on 29 September 2022, with

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

astronaut

Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti, OMRI (; born in Milan on 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut ( ...

taking over as ISS commander. Initially, the expedition consisted of Cristoforetti and her three

SpaceX Crew-4 SpaceX Crew-4 was the Crew Dragon's fourth NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its seventh overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 27 April 2022 at 07:52 UTC before docking with the International Space Station (ISS) at ...

crewmates

Kjell N. Lindgren Kjell Norwood Lindgren (born January 23, 1973) is an American astronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He launched to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 44/ 45 on July 22, 201 ...

, Bob Hines and

Jessica Watkins Jessica Andrea Watkins (born May 14, 1988) is an American NASA astronaut, geologist, aquanaut and former international rugby player. Watkins was announced as the first Black woman who will complete an International Space Station long-term missi ...

, as well as

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev,

Dmitry Petelin Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Petelin (Russian Cyrillic: Дмитрий Александрович Петелин; born July 10, 1983, in Kustanai, Kazakh SSR, now Kazakhstan) is a Russian cosmonaut who was part of the 2012 selection group. Biograph ...

and American astronaut,

Francisco Rubio Francisco "Paco" Rubio (born 6 December 1953) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, bre ...

, who launched aboard

Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz MS-22 is a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch was previously planned for 13 September 2022, but in the provisional flight m ...

on September 21, 2022 and were transferred from Expedition 67 alongside the Crew-4 astronauts. Crew-4 departed the station in 13 October, 2022 and was replaced by

SpaceX Crew-5 SpaceX Crew-5 is the fifth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the eighth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 5 October 2022 and transported four crew members to the Internat ...

, which ferried

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

astronauts

Nicole Mann Nicole "Duke" Victoria Aunapu Mann (born June 27, 1977) is an American test pilot and NASA astronaut. She is an F/A-18 Hornet pilot, and a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Stanford University and the US Naval Test Pilot School. She has over 2, ...

and

Josh Cassada Josh Aaron Cassada (born July 18, 1973) is an American physicist, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Prior to his selection to join NASA in 2013, Cassada served as a test pilot in the US Navy, and has over 3,500 hours in more than 40 aircraft, and 2 ...

, as well as

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

astronaut

Koichi Wakata is a Japanese engineer and a JAXA astronaut. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. During a nearly two-decade career in spaceflight, he has ...

and Roscosmos cosmonaut

Anna Kikina Anna Yuryevna Kikina (russian: Анна Юрьевна Кикина, born 27 August 1984 in Novosibirsk) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. In June ...

, to the station. Before departing, Cristoforetti handed command of the station over to Prokopyev. On December 14, 2022, a coolant leak was discovered on

docked at the station, cancelling a spacewalk, and initiating contingency planning.

Crew

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, Spaceflight Expeditions to the International Space Station 2022 in spaceflight