Expedition 58
Expedition | |
---|---|
Space station | International Space Station |
Arrived aboard | Soyuz MS-11 |
Departed aboard | TBD |
Crew | |
Crew size | 3 |
Members | |
(l-r) NASA Astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and CSA Astronaut David Saint-Jacques. |
Expedition 58 is the 58th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on December 20, 2018 with the departure of the Expedition 57 crew.[1][2] It is commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, with astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques as flight engineers; the trio launched on board Soyuz MS-11 on December 3, 2018, marking the 100th orbital launch of the year.[3]
Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques will subsequently transfer to Expedition 59 in February 2019, when Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch arrive on board Soyuz MS-12.[4][needs update]
History
During early planning, the expedition was scheduled to include rookie cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov. However, Tikhonov's assignment was postponed (for the second time) due to delays in launching the Russian Nauka module.[5][6] Tikhonov has been reassigned to the Soyuz MS-14 flight scheduled for late 2019.
As of October 2018, plans called for the expedition to feature a crew of five: cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague would have joined the Expedition 57 crew in October 2018, and subsequently transferred to Expedition 58; they would have been joined by Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques in December 2018. Ovchinin and Hague would then have returned to Earth in April 2019. Subsequently, the Expedition 59 mission would have begun with Kononenko as commander. However, the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft carrying Ocvhinin and Hague aborted during its launch on October 11, 2018; the two crew returned safely to Earth.[7]
Following the Soyuz MS-10 abort, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced on October 23, 2018 that Soyuz flights to the ISS were expected to resume in December 2018.[8] At first, it was assumed that Expedition 58 would initially consist of three crew members who would then be joined later by the crew of Soyuz MS-12, bringing the crew up to six. However, in the post-launch news conference for Soyuz MS-11, NASA announced that the Soyuz MS-12 crew would become the station Expedition 59/60 crew. Expedition 58 is therefore a three person increment.
Crew
Position | Crew member | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Oleg Kononenko, RSA Fourth spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 1 | Anne McClain, NASA First spaceflight | |
Flight Engineer 2 | David Saint-Jacques, CSA First spaceflight |
Saint-Jacques is the first Canadian resident on the space station since Chris Hadfield served as commander of Expedition 35, which terminated on May 13, 2013 almost six years prior.
Notes
References
- ^ "Astronauts arrived ISS following successful launch of Soyuz rocket". Aerospace Technology. December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
Expedition 58 officially begins once the three departing spacefarers undock from the space station.
- ^ Gebhardt, Chris. "Soyuz MS-09 lands after unprecedented on-orbit repairs, inspections – NASASpaceFlight.com". Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^ Gebhardt, Chris. "100th orbital launch of 2018: International trio set for launch to Space Station – NASASpaceFlight.com". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ "NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Set for New Space Station Mission – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov.
- ^ Ben Evans (May 30, 2018). "No U.S. Crew Will Command The International Space Station in 2019". AmericaSpace. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
- ^ Ben Evans (October 30, 2016). "As Soyuz MS-01 Lands, International Partners Look Ahead to Reduced Crewing in 2017". AmericaSpace. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
- ^ Berger, Eric (October 11, 2018). "A Soyuz crew makes an emergency landing after rocket fails". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
- ^ "NASA administrator says Russians on track for December Soyuz flight to station". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved October 25, 2018.